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A REPORT 

UPON THE 

erculaneum $tamt£crit>tsi, 

IN A 

SECOND LETTER, 

ADDRESSED, BY PERMISSION, 

TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS 

THE 

PRINCE REGENT, 

BY THE 

REV. JOHN HAYTER, A.M. 

CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO THE PRINCE, 
AND HIS SUPERINTENDENT OF THOSE MANUSCRIPTS. 



/7Z- 



praebetur Origo 



Per Cinerem. Claudian. 



Eontwm: 

PRINTED FOR RICHARD PHILLIPS, No. 7, BRIDGE STREET; 
BY GEORGE SIDNEY, NORTHUMBERLAND STREET, STRAND. 

1811. 



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PREFATORY REMARK. 



Two or three references are necessarily made in 
this Second Letter to the First, which was ad- 
dressed to the same Illustrious Personage. For 
this reason a new and corrected Edition of that 
First Letter is subjoined to the present. 



- 



- - 



TO 



HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS 



THE 



PRINCE REGENT. 



Sir, 

It must be regarded by every person, 
as a very distinguished honour to me, to have 
been selected by your Royal Highness for the 
arduous and important charge, and direction of 
restoring to light the contents of the celebrated 
Herculaneum Manuscripts. 

Before my departure from England, in 1 800, 
I was most graciously permitted to represent the 
whole scope of this literary mission, in a printed 

B 



2 

letter, addressed to your Royal Highness, as the 

great and illustrious Patron of the undertaking. 
Since my return, that letter has, with the same 
gracious permission, been reprinted, in order to 
correct some errors, which a want of local, as 
well as accurate, information had unavoidably 
occasioned. 

But of infinitely more consequence is the 
advantage, which I now enjoy, of addressing to 
your Royal Highness, in this letter, a faithful 
and detailed account of every circumstance, 
transaction, and occurrence, which, in any man- 
ner, are connected with the nature, the com- 
mencement, the prosecution, and the result of 
the undertaking, of which the successful, at least 
very promising, course was interrupted, most 
unfortunately, in the year 1806, by the French 
invasion of the Neapolitan territory. Hence it 
will clearly appear, I most confidently trust, that, 
notwithstanding that invasion, notwithstanding 



3 

all the weakness, the ignorance, the jealousy, 
and the treachery, which, from several quarters, 
vtfere conducive to the purpose of impeding, or 
counteracting, the progress of my labours, yet 
the Commands of your Royal Highness, in this 
most princely work, have been executed to a 
greater extent, than could have been reasonably 
presumed. In truth, the fac simile copies of 
ninety-four manuscripts, lately transferred, by 
your wise and munificent donation, through the 
hands of that most distinguished, both scholar 
and statesman, — that, upon every consideration, 
most respectable nobleman, Lord Grenville, — to 
the University of Oxford, will, unquestionably, 
serve to immortalize your name in every future 
generation, more especially of the learned world. 

Nor was your Royal interposition, in this 
instance, merely glorious ; it was, happily, too, 
most seasonable. In any court, where an indif- 
ference, to any degree, prevails against the pur- 

B 2 



4 

suits, and interests of knowledge, and erudition in 
general, treasures, inestimable treasures, of anci- 
ent literature, like these manuscripts of Hercula- 
neum, although composed in the two classical 
languages, could not engage a single thought, 
much less any regard, or attention whatsoever. 
Besides, the crisis itself, and, particularly, the 
ruinous expences of a war with the common 
enemy, rendered it nearly impracticable for the 
embarrassed sovereign of the two Sicilies, even if 
he had been so disposed, to promote the attain- 
ment of literary objects, by dedicating to them 
any part of his concern, or of his revenue. 

You, most illustrious Sir, are the only Royal 
Personage, at the present era, of those high and 
disinterested sentiments, which, renouncing every 
personal view, every selfish regard, excite a phi- 
lanthropic zeal, an humane ambition, to form and 
to advance any great design, which may tend to 
some laudable and beneficial end. To yourself 



alone these despondent relics of old Greece and 
Rome could have had recourse for the vindica- 
tion of their merits, and even for the protection 
of their existence. To the Prince of Wales alone 
could they, with any hope of success, offer their 
supplications in the language of a former and 
similar occasion, in these expressions of 

MaQrifJLCtgi vvv <Ts UctXouwv 



But, in estimating their claim upon your 
Royal interference, it should be recollected, these 
Manuscripts relied not only upon the two classical 
languages, in which they are written, but also upon 
their age itself, which outruns the date of any 
other Manuscripts upon earth. Why should I 
say their age ? In truth, the date of their very 
loss exceeds by centuries the age, howsoever great 
it may be, of all other books and autographs, 



6 

which have survived the wreck of ancient learn- 
ing ; and their developement, although it obtained 
the acquisition of solitary unconnected characters, 
would, as furnishing a criterion of orthography, 
or literal delineation, furnish " Jewels richer than 
the whole tribe" of all other ancient books, and 
autographs. 

It should not be omitted, that their value is 
incalculably enhanced by the local eminence of 
their discovery. The Romans took possession of 
Herculaneum, U. C. 460. A. C. 293. " Jam 
Servilius," Livy informs us, " Volanam, et 
Palumbinum, et Herculaneum, in Samnitibus 
ceperat. — Ad Herculaneum bis etiam signis 
collatis ancipiti prselio." As belonging to the 
Samnites, whose language is evidently of oriental 
extraction, it may not improbably in its name 
combine terms the same with those of the 
Hebrew* "^^ " mountain," and vp " burn- 

* It is a circumstance extremely curious, that, in one of the most 
learned and popular Journals, this etymology is reprehended, because the 



ing." Should this etymological conjecture be 
deemed not altogether admissible, it must, 
however, be confessed, that it is at least recom- 
mended to some notice by the situation of the 
city itself. Besides, the impending Vesuvius is 
generally stated by antiquarians to derive its 
appellation from the oriental Xtf& or fr^t£^ 
fire. Hence Vesuv among the Tuscans, who 
are fond of the u, and then Begfiiog, and then 
Vesuvius. Vesta is supposed to be of the same 
origin. Strabo calls the mountain 'Oveggmov. 
Dion. Hal. 'Ovegfiiov. Galen says, *Oi 'owpifisgTspoi 

Bsgovfiiov 9 ovo[/.£Zovgiv tq$* svSo%ov 9 aon veov ovopdi rov Ko<pov 

mountain was not burning antecedently to the time when Herculaneum 
was destroyed. But the Journalist might have reflected, that, as no 
written record of a prior eruption existed, yet we are told by Strabo, that 
the soil and appearance of the mountain itself exhibited sufficient record 
of eruption, or eruptions. In excavating the two cities of Herculaneum 
and Pompeii, volcanic strata were found under the houses and the streets, 
and the streets themselves are paved, and the houses are builded, with 
volcanic stones and lava. 



8 

Bs;(Ziov. Varro calls it Vesubius, and Vesuius. 
Virgil and Suetonius, Vesevus. Columella, Sta- 
tius, Martial, Silius Italicus, and Val. Flaccus, 
differently. 

This enumeration of various names is in- 
troduced here for the sole purpose of inferring, 
with some apparent authority, that, as both the 
Greeks and Romans are so vague in expressing 
the denomination of Vesuvius, they had 
derived it from some Eastern language, from 
which the name, Herculaneum, is, therefore, 
with as much probability, derived. It may not 
be improper, perhaps, to subjoin, that the Greeks 
very commonly articulated a foreign aspirate by 
B, and the Romans by V. 

According to all historians, the Samnites 
were a nation both warlike and powerful. Eo 
anno (U. C. 412, A. C. 340,) adversus Samnites, 
gentem opibus, armisque validam, nota arma. 
A piece of marble, preserved in the Royal 



9 

Museum of Portici, has an inscription in Samni- 
tical characters. 

m u s s e t a t n e r eh 

Sum Sacra Tabula 

This stone, thus inscribed, was found in 
Herculaneum, which, of course, was Samnitical. 
Besides, as it could resist a besieging army, even 
of the Romans, it must have been a place of 
some strength and consideration. If we suppose, 
that the Osci, Tyrrheni, or Tusci, and Pelasgi, 
and Samnites, were not the same, the antiquity 
of Herculaneum becomes more respectable. 
Ogaoi is ^si^ov mi txvtw (Herculaneum) x&i rw 's<ps%ris 

H0fJL7TCLlCLV SlTOL TVpftqVQl, KOLl TLsAxsyOl* MsTfc TOLVTCZ 

XoifJLv'lTOU. 'OVTOI i* S%S7TS$0V SK T&V TQ7TU)P. 

This passage of the Geographer, compared 
with that of Dionysius Hal. assigns a very 
remote period to the existence of this city. 

c 



10 

v O !s fflovos, iv 'w to TleXctsyucov xcutovs&oii ''*)p£aTo, fevTepa, 
ysvsoi qysiov wpo ruv Tpwtmv iysvsTo. It must strike 

our attention, somewhat forcibly, in support of a 
claim to remote antiquity, that the inscription 
must be read, like Eastern Languages, from the 
right hand to the left. 

The political state of Herculaneum, whe- 
ther it were a settlement of Phoenicians, or of 
other Asiaticks, cannot be traced with any exact- 
ness, or conclusive deduction, from facts and 
circumstances, at any epocha earlier, than that 
of the Roman dominion. It can only be argued 
presumptively from Strabo, that it might have 
been of the twelve cities, which formed the 
dynasty of the Tuscans in Campania. The 
opposition, it made to the victorious legions of 
Rome, the municipal rights which it enjoyed 
after its subjugation, clearly indicate some pros- 
perity, and some importance in the estimation of 
the conqueror. 



11 

Herculaneum is twice called Municipium, 
that is, in an inscription, which I saw in the 
Royal Museum at Portici; and again, in another 
inscription, which Julius Caesar Capaccio produces. 
That of the Royal Museum runs, 
M. Memmio M. F. Rufo Patri 
Municipes. 
And is sanctioned, should more proof and au- 
thorities be demanded, by a brass plate, which at 
once evinces the municipal privileges of this 
city to the most scrupulous investigator. 

T. Claudio, Drusi. F. 

Caesari. Augusti. 

Germanico. 

Pont:. Max: Trib: Pot: 8. 

Imp: 16. Cos. 2. 

Patri. Patriae. Cens. 

Ex Testimenti Messii L. F. M. A. 

Senecae. 



c 2 



12 

MilitisCoh: 10 Urbanae, et 
Dedicationi ejus legavit 
Muicipibus 
Singulis HS. MI n. 
From some inscribed pieces of stone it ap- 
pears, that, as Cives Romani, the inhabitants of 
Herculaneum were enrolled in some tribe at 
Rome itself, particularly the Menenian. 

L. Annio L. F. Men. 

2 Vir. Itin : Quin . . 

. . Vir Epularum. 

It may not be improper to suggest, that all 

the inscriptions, which I have produced, or may 

produce, have been digged from Herculaneum, 

and, except that of Julius Caesar Capaccio, have 

been perused and examined by me. 

Exclusive of a short interval in the Marsick 
or social war, this city remained in tranquil sub- 
jection to Consular and Imperial Rome. 



13 

Divo Julio 
Herculanenses. 



Germanico Caesari Tib. F. Divi Augusti n. 
Divi Julii pronepoti, Auguri. Flamini Augustalio. 

Cos, 2. Imp. n. 



The Emperors, on their part, seem to have 

been grateful for the loyal attachment of this 

people. Thus, 

Imp: Caes. Vespasianus Aug. Pontifex Max. 

Trib: Pot. 7. Imp. 17. P. P. Cos. 7. Desig: 8. 

Templum Matris Deum terrse motu collapsun 

Restituit. 

Again upon a publick weight. 

Imp. Vesp. Aug: IIX. 

T.Imp: Aug. F: VIC. 

Exacta in Capitolio. 

And upon another publick weight. 

Tib: Clau. Cses. Aug: Vitel. 

Ill Cos. exacta ad artic: 

Cura JEM. 



14 

And upon a brass Sextarius. 
D. D. P. P. Here. 

That is, Decurionum Decreto Prsefecti ponderibus 
Herculanensium. 

These three inscriptions inform us of ano- 
ther municipal right enjoyed by the Hercula- 
nenses in then* Ponderale, or House of Publick 
Weights. 

There was an earthquake, Anno Christi 63, 
sixteen years previous to that eruption of Vesu- 
vius, which destroyed Herculaneum, Anno Christi 
79. Seneca declares, that in this earthquake 
Herculaiiensis oppidi pars ruit, dubieque stant 
etiam, quae relicta sunt. Nonis Februarii fuit 
terrae motus. 

In an enclosure behind the great theatre a 
heap of tiles, respectively numbered, together 
with the trunk of a marble statue, and the frag- 
ments of several columns, was excavated under 
the volcanick materials. Another earthquake, 



15 

indeed, immediately preceded, or rather at* 
tended, that eruption. Some houses were 
thrown to the ground by the severe concussion. 
Their ruins are partly spread upon the original 
soil, partly upon the pumice stones discharged 
from the mountain. Pliny, in his account ad- 
dressed to Tacitus, says, " Prsecesserat per multos 
dies treror terrse minus formidilosus, qui Cam- 
paniae hon solum castella, verum etiam oppida 
vexare solitus : ilia vero nocte ita invaluit, ut 
non moveri omnia, sed everti crederentur." In 
this letter, as well as in the 16th of the same 
book, to the same friend, Pliny has proved him- 
self to have " Omnia vere prosecutum," al- 
though, with great modesty, he remark, " Aliud 
est Epistolam, aliud Historiam scribere." 

Conformably to his faithful description, 
the excavated stratum is not lava, as has been 
often said, but " Pumices nigrique et ambusti, 
et fracti igne lapides," to the depth of nearly 



16 

seventy feet in many places. All the wood in 
Herculaneum was reduced to coals, and every 
thing combustible was not only injured by the 
extreme heat, but, as was the case with the ma- 
nuscripts, was violently compressed, and con- 
tracted by the ponderous pressure of the volca- 
nick materials. In one of his best poetical efforts 
Statius justly says, 

Pater exemtum terris ad sidera montem 

Sustulit, et late miseras dejecit in urbes. 
Upon this stratum of stones, first liquified, 
and then hardened and incorporated into prodi- 
gious masses, there has been raised a second stra- 
tum, accumulated by the scoriae of 1631. The 
celebrated Mazzochi objects to the edited date 
of the eruption in Pliny, and changes it from 
9 Cal : Sep : into 9 Cal : Dec : in order to make 
it consistent with the remains of dried fruits, 
such as chesnuts, figs, and raisins, found in the 
excavation, and preserved in the Royal Museum 



17 

of Portici. These fruits, he says, in Campania, 
are not saved before October. It is most true, I 
have seen these fruits, and also some cones of firs, 
in that museum. But, considering the nature of 
the climate, and the unripe state, in which those 
fruits and cones may have been gathered, and the 
possible variations of season, I cannot conclude, 
with Mazzochi, that they will justify his emen- 
dation. 

A fragment of L. Sisenna, in Nonius Mar- 
cellus, informs us, that, " Oppidum Hercula- 
neum tumulo in excelso loco propter mare parvis 
maenibus inter duos fluvios infra Vesuvium posi- 
tum." It is very remarkable, that no sign of 
these two rivers, except some water bubbling, 
and making its way through the Tophus, or Pap- 
pamonte, in its supposed ancient channel, is now 
remaining. A passage in the Book of Statutes, 
belonging to the Chapter of the Cathedral at 
Naples, was shewed to me ; it had these words : — 

D 



18 

u At vero pro vino Greco in ista parte fluminis," 
which, relating to the claim of the Chapter upon 
the wine to a certain extent about Torre Ottava, 
render indubitable the existence of one river at 
least, until the year 1534. 

By the two outisrou, or conditores, whom the 
munificent Titus appointed, he gave the sur- 
viving and distressed inhabitants of this city 

They were, too, if we may credit a Neapolitan 
inscription of Gruter, settled by these Conditores 
in Naples. 

L. Munatio Concessia 

No V. P. Patrono Colo 

niae pro meritis ejus 

Erga cives munifica 

Largitate olim hono- 

rem debitum praestan 

tessimo Viro prsesens 

Tempus exegit. Quo etiam 



19 

Munatii Concessiani Filii 
Sui Demarchia cumulatiore 
Sumptu Liberalitatis abun 
dantia universis exhibuit Civibus, 
Obquse Testimonia amoris sinceris 
simi Reg: primaria splendidissi 
ma Herculanensium patrono mira 
bili statuam ponendam decr.evit. 
Capaccio shews, there was a Compitum 
Herculeum at Naples. This circumstance, added 
to the weight of the inscription, removes, i% 
should seem, every doubt about the spot, whither 
the expatriated inhabitants of Herculaneum were 
transferred. 

Thus, with as much conciseness, as the sub- 
ject could well admit, I have endeavoured to 
present to the view of your Royal Highness the 
origin, and the various fortunes of this city, and 
the final ruin, into which it was plunged by its 
formidable neighbour, Vesuvius. 

D 2 




20 

Not less connected with the object of my 
employment, the manuscripts, or " papiri," is the 
mountain itself, to which they owe their pre- 
sent state, and appearance, than the place, in 
which they were so long, that is, for the space of 
1673 years, buried, and, while buried, most 
wonderfully preserved under a stupendous mass 
of volcanick substance. Some faint tradition, 
intimated in the appellation of " Campi Phlegrsei," 
and in the Battle of the Giants, supported among 
the ancients a belief, that an eruption, or erup- 
tions, prior to that of 79, in the first year of 
Titus, had taken place. The iG memoratur an- 
tiquitus exarsisse" of Vitruvius is strengthened by 
the more prolix account of the Sicilian Diodorus. 

9 Q.pou,oigdoLi tie tovto q>7\eypouov Wo tov 7\o<pov tov to ttolKoliov 
ol^Xbtov 7rvp 'sKtpvgctnog 7rot,poL7rMstug rrj xoltH ty\v ZiksXiccv 
"Aitvol. KaXhroLi <Je vvv o toko; 'Ovegfiiog ej(uv ^roAAa sYifjuiict 
tov xexoLvgdai jcoltol tov; dp^diovg ^povovg. TacitllS, 

in his usual manner, expresses it, " Novis cladi- 



21 

bus, vel post longam seculorum seriem repetitis. 
Symptoms of former eruption have displayed 
themselves in the different strata of wells digged 
to a considerable depth ; besides these symptoms, 
which I mentioned in my note upon the Jour- 
nalists, some have drawn the same inference 
from Lucretius, where he says, 
Qualis apud C umas locus est, montemque Vesevum, 
Oppleti calidis ubi fumant fontibus haustus. 

Strabo, by whom the plain about, and under 
the mountain is called 'Aypog noiyKCLXog, was of 
opinion, that the surface of the ground exhibited 
undeniable marks of former eruption, or, in his 
own words, 'Qg 'olv rsz^oiifioi to yjipiov tovto miegdou 
nporepov. 

After the eruption of 79 there have been 
more, than thirty other eruptions. One of them, 
described by Cassiodorus, and Procopius, seems to 
have been extraordinarily dreadful. 

The figure of the mountain, which has 



22 

sometimes burst its sides, sometimes vented its 
fury at its top, must have experienced many con- 
siderable changes. For instance, Strabo has tjJ$ 
xopvtri; only, Dio "A/ nepit; xopvtpoii. Statius was a 
Neapolitan, and was eye-witness of the eruption 
in 79. Who, therefore, can well gainsay his 
veracity in any thing, which he communicates 
relative to it ? But his veracity is of very mate- 
rial importance to the antiquities of these manu- 
scripts. He assures us, that the complete 
destruction, and interment of whole cities, and 
the absorption, and annihilation of whole farms 
and estates, were the consequences of that 
eruption. 

Mira fides ! credetne virum ventura propago, 
Cumsegetes iterum,cum jam hsecdesertavirebunt, 
Infra urbes, populosque premi, proavitaque toto 

Rura abiisse mari ? 

The " erat" of Martial, in speaking of 
Herculaneum, His 



23 

Cunita jacent flammis, et tristi mersa favilla, 
the " Tag troKeig $vo oXag to rs 'HpxovXaviov rovg re 
TlofJL7rY]iovg jcars^cagsy^ of Dio, the TW 'ayvoiav, jcoLi 
'aga<peiav, onov mrmwrai," of Plutarch, the redvii 
Kigiv 'fail v&ksig mi 'npoifaaiov, of the Emperor Mar- 
cus Antoninus, and the silence of succeeding geo- 
graphers are sufficient to prove to your Royal 
Highness the total destruction, and disappearance 
of this city. 

Upon the other hand, it is my duty towards 
the Prince of Wales, especially as both justice, 
and candour require it from me, not to suppress, 
what has been asserted by the opponents of this 
total destruction. In the annals of literature 
few persons have attained more celebrity, than 
Scipio Maffei, among the Italians, and, among 
the French, Bar thelemi. Both these men have 
influenced the opinion of some to a great degree, 
with regard to the loss of this city ; seconded by 
loannes Larnius, both of them have pronounced, 



24 

that the antiquities deposited in the Museum of 
Portici,by King Charles III. had not the least to do 
with Herculaneum ; that the Augustana Tabula, 
commonly called Peutingeriana, from Peutinger, 
and written in the timeof Theodosius the Younger, 
mentions Herculaneum ; that (which is their 
only argument not perfectly vague) some coins 
inscribed Domitianus Caesar in that collection of 
Portici, even if you acknowledge the identity of 
those ruins with Herculaneum, would announce 
the prolongation of its existence after the reign 
of Titus, and of the eruption, 79. Upon these 
two alledged proofs their heretical dogma rests. 

At the same time it must be confessed, that 
my Brethren of the Royal Herculaneum Soci- 
ety reply with some force, by representing the 
Greek name of Herculaneum in the Peutingerian 
Tables, as nothing more than the name of a 
temple, dedicated to Hercules, or, as a translation 
of Porticus Herculis, afterwards corrupted into 



25 

Portici : that in the Greek capital at a distance 
from the spot, the compiler might easily mistake 
one for the other : that, with respect to the 
coins, the title of Caesar was often, or rather 
usually, bestowed upon the sons of the Emperor, 
during the life-time, or reign, of the Sovereign. 

For my own part, if it could be vouchsafed me 
to address, upon such a question, a reference to so 
elevated authority, I am sure your Royal High- 
ness would not hesitate to determine, that a 
most conclusive argument against Maffei, &c. 
may be drawn from the manuscripts themselves, 
because all the names of the writers, hitherto 
discovered in those manuscripts, are those of 
writers, not only who lived, but are generally 
known to have lived, a considerable time before 
the said eruption, except in the case of one 
writer, whose title of the work is KoLpveigxov O/A^ra. 
This Carneiscus, of whom no mention is made 
in any extant author, may have lived before, or 

E 



■•- 



26 

after, that eruption ; but certain expressions in 
his manuscript persuade me, that he too lived a 
considerable time before the said eruption. 

e/ Ev yap vocpov (ZovKsvpoi roig zciKKig yzpoLg 
Nuoi. 

This verse of Euripides was found, written 
with ochre upon the walls of a room, which, 
from other circumstances, is supposed to have 
been in a house belonging to a pedagogue. The 
accents, and the minuscule figure of the letters, 
although they were not employed in transcribing 
for publick use any books in the Greek language, 
might naturally be employed in a grammar or 
writing-school, where Roman, L e. foreign, scho- 
lars were taught the different characters of that 
language, and could not have learned accentual 
intonation without the assistance, and guide of 
some visible marks. Upon this subject it would 
be unjustifiable in me to enlarge, because it 
would be unnecessary, and, also, an act of pre- 



27 

sumption. One of the best Greek scholars, whom 
this country has ever produced, the late most 
deeply, and most accurately, learned Dr. Foster, 
Upper Master of Eton, in his Treatise upon 
Accents, and Quantity, has established the true 
account of this subject, with historical, and 
erudite precision. If any additional statement 
were wanting, the valuable work of Mr. Mitford 
would clear every doubt, and satisfy the queries 
of the most sceptical investigation ; and most cer- 
tainly would serve to refute any objections, which 
the before -mentioned cavillers could raise, upon 
the accents of the cited Greek iambick inscrip- 
tion, against the date of the total destruction of 
Herculaneum. In defence of the same date, and 
consistently with the well-founded proposition of 
Casley, in his most able performance, ff the 
Catalogue, &c," the observation of Dr. Taylor, 
upon this very inscription, seems to be unanswer- 
able. After referring to an inscription, in Greek, 

e 2 



28 

as well as Latin, at Rome, and of the age of 
Tiberius, he observes, that, " In the Greek, 
according to Mauritius, though neglected by 
Gruter, the little a, the <p, the <T, the w, are all 
remarkable. The small characters were, there- 
fore, we see, known at that time, but reserved for 
private use, like the visible accentual marks, and 
rarely mixed with their publick monuments/' 
With regard to the Latin part of this inscription, 
where accents are found upon the long vowels, 
for instance, 

Tu qui secura, procedis mente parurnper, 
in a fragment of a Latin poem, which is among 
the fac simile copies of the Herculaneum manu- 
scripts, now at Oxford, and attributed, conjec- 
turally by me, to Varius, the author exhibits 
in the same manner the same accent upon a 
long vowel, as constituting a syllable, or part of 
a metrical foot. 

It may not be improper to close this sum- 




29 

mary account of Herculaneum with a curious 
passage of the Sybilline Oracle in Plutarch, 
respecting the eruption so fatal to that city. 
" To these remarkable and recent evils, (he writes) 
the ancient theme of Sybilline song, and pro- 
phecy, has not time done justice, and correspon- 
dency brought to pass? I mean the eruption of 
fire from the mountain, the boiling effervescence 
of sea- water, and the violent dispersion of massy 
stones, and combustion itself, with the assistance 
of the wind, and the total ruin of so many and 
so great cities, in such a manner, that the whole 
country was defaced, and the very site became 
undis tinguishable." 

How the ruins of Herculaneum were dis- 
covered, I have already represented to your 
Royal Highness in my first Letter. Charles III. 
with his natural liberality, and public spirit, gave 
his immediate orders for excavation. But, un- 
fortunately, to the discredit of the Sovereign 



30 

himself, and to the injury of his great designs, a 
Spaniard (I forget his name) was appointed 
director of the whole. This Spaniard united 
arrogance, and obstinacy, with the darkest want 
of knowledge, and, therefore, his whole super- 
intendency was a course of practical lectures 
upon those qualities. Hence it is for the literary 
world a complete epjiauov, that all the manuscripts, 
now preserved, were not sacrificed in common 
with some others, which the Director, and the 
equally ignorant, but clearly guiltless, labourers, 
mistook for pieces of charcoal, or burned timber, 
and which, in consequence, were removed, and 
applied by them, to the usual domestick pur- 
poses. In the course of their removal, however, 
some detached fragments happily fell from one, 
or two of these devoted volumes, and displayed 
upon their surface very distinguishable characters. 
Of this circumstance the labourers honestly 
informed the Spaniard, who, as the characters 






/ •/ 






^ # - ////////, >r/ "■/.. ) ) 



TOlAeAO 



OJM 
ICCNieHeYTJOJ 

0-M<6l>\A/ViC 

MJTOACeM 

OH 





^ 






« 



■ » 



^ 






1 :% 






^ ^ 






K 



0^ 









' / / 



AO All M O 
P I TO 



.!/<./-, ^ f.„ 



/..■It, loll Publish,:! .l/>ri'l :•*' hill /;)■ /ll./i.il./ I'lu/lip.r .V.'j.A'rw liriii/f.S'lr. 



31 

were Greek, could not read them : he was 
obliged, therefore, to consult that eminent scho- 
lar, the Canon Mazzochi, about them. To the 
great joy of Mazzochi, who immediately repaired 
to the " Scavi," the labourers were still pro- 
curing more manuscripts from two different, but 
small, rooms in the same house.* The wood of 
the shelves, upon which they had been placed in 
small boxes, was, together with the wood of 
the boxes themselves, strongly charred, or re- 
duced to ashes. The manuscripts themselves, 
so providentially saved by the intervention of 
Mazzochi, and gradually and carefully excavated 
by the workmen, were not less than eighteen 



* This house is supposed, upon some foundation, to have been the 
residence of the great Piso family. Cicero, speaking of that residence, 
observes, that he could see it from his villa, near Puteoli. This circum- 
stance has been practically confirmed upon the spot where that villa stood, 
in directing the view towards that part of the volcanick mass, which is 
perpendicularly over the site of that residence. 



32 

hundred, some in a less, some in a more perfect 
state. It is curious, that these manuscripts, 
which are always called by the Italians " Papiri," 
because the substance of each volume, or roll, 
was formed from the plant Papyrus,* owe their 
preservation to the heat of those materials, which 
had buried them; without this, their vegetable 
texture must have been destroyed by putrefac- 
tion. But, although the greatest part of their 
bulk had thus resisted the effects of time, yet 
that bulk itself had been much injured. In 
many instances it was much impaired, some- 
times obliterated, or disfigured, or perforated, 



* Hence the modern word Paper. The ingenious Chevalier Lando- 
lini, of Syracuse, who favoured me with a visit at Portici, renewed, with 
successful experiment, the mode of forming this substance. It both 
receives and retains, extremely well, and most distinctly, each character of 
the pen and ink ; our best paper is not more serviceable ; I have often 
tried it. Landolini, in a manuscript essay, has ably corrected, and 
explained the corrupt text of Pliny upon this subject. 



33 

or mutilated, or broken, wholly, or in part, by that 
very heat, or by compression under the heavy 
volcanick materials, or by the forcible introduc- 
tion of very light dust, and some small stones, 
into its substance, especially in the more exterior 
folds of each volume, which, in every instance, 
have suffered some, or all of those various inju- 
ries. The interior folds, where the Greek and 
Latin characters (as the manuscripts are written 
in both those languages) are not totally annihi- 
lated by volcanick injuries, exhibit an high 
degree of preservation, and even a superficial 
lustre, both in their substance, and in the re- 
maining characters. The ancient ink had, 
luckily, a considerable quantity of gum, but no 
acid ; of this we had been informed by Pliny the 
Elder, who is invaluable, as in so many other 
respects, so for his extreme accuracy in every 
point, upon which his indefatigable researches 
could not be misled by others, or insuperably 

F 



34 

obstructed, or baffled. By royal command, at the 
suggestion of Mazzochi, the manuscripts were 
lodged in the Museum at Portici, and numbered; 
but, owing to the folly of the Spaniard, were not 
classed in two divisions, so as to denote the quan- 
tity found in each of the two respective rooms. 

To advance the developement, and inter- 
pretation of these volumes, Charles III. insti- 
tuted a society ; it consisted of members, the 
most celebrated in that country for their literary 
attainments, — the Marquis Tannucci, Mazzochi, 
the Prelate Baiardi,* and some few others. 



* To this extraordinary man all the antiquities of the Museum, ex- 
cept these manuscripts, were committed, whether from Herculaneum, Pom- 
peii, or Stabiae. In his History of Herculaneum he begins ab ovo : as he pro- 
ceeds, he does much : and would have done still more, had not the termina- 
tion of his life interfered with the completion of his design. In several 
printed volumes hitherto, he had only given, with genealogical minute- 
ness, the whole account of Hercules, and his children, man, woman, and 
child ; but, had he lived, he would have given the same account of all the 
subsequent generations of all the Heraclidse. 



35 

When Piaggi, the inventor of the process, which I 
have more circumstantially described in my former 
Letter, had, together with his scholar, Vincenzo 
Merli, unrolled a page, or any tolerable series of 
characters, in any fragment, they submitted, in 
either case, whatever they had gained, to Maz- 
zochi, who applied himself most successfully to 
the elucidation of it. The first manuscript they 
opened had the title of the work, and the name 
of the author, at the end,*" that is, upon the 
most interior part of the roll. The work, as the 
title imported, was upon musick, the name of 
the author Philodemus. 



* This title, and name, have been situated in the same part of all 
the manuscripts, hitherto opened, except in two instances : — one instance 
is that of the fac simile manuscript, or volume, which faces page 31 of 
this Letter : — the other is that of which I have made a memorandum at 
the bottom of the same fac simile. The import of the superscription 
in the fac simile is clear, as to the arithmetical cyphers, such as XXX 
(viz.) 3000, which, as they are stated to that effect in other manuscripts, 
most probably denote the number of lines only ; and, therefore, the other 

F 2 



36 

Perhaps it may not be thought totally unin- 
teresting, should I lay before your Royal High- 
ness a view of some specimens of titles, and 
names, and other final inscriptions from those 
" Papiri," which were opened under my direction. 

At the end of the manuscript, No. 1042, 
which Camillo Paderni began to unroll 23d 
January, 1802., and finished 22d March in the 
same year, there are* 

sUiKovYov 
TleVi OyCswC 

In Number 1423. 

O/AoAHMoy 
IIsP* PHToP*KIlC 

A 
TwN biC Avo To IIPoTgPoN 



part of the superscription may, not improbably, denote the subject. In 
the other manuscript, the characters AoAHMo 

. . x» .. 1 . . . « 

are the remains of OjAoJfljUOy Ylepl Yr\TOflKY\q, i- e. both the name of 
the writer, and title of his subjeet. 



37 

In Number 208. 

KooAooTov 
IlPoC ToN nA a 1 . i .* 
NoC A . C* . * 

In Number 336. f 

noA^CTPaToy IIsP* 

aAoTov KaTaOPoNH 

CswC O/A sILrPaOoy 

C/N IlPoC T<wC aAorwC 

KaTot ©PaCyNoMeNoyC 

T«N sN ToiC UoAAoiC 

AoEaZoMeNwN 

In Number 1027. 

KaPNs*CKot> 
QiAiCTol 
B 
AP*0 XXX HH AAA H CsA 



* These dots are inserted by me to shew, that there is a chasm. 

f This Number was only half of a manuscript, which had been 
broken into two pieces. Another Number, forming the other half, was 
fortunately unfolded and copied afterwards. The fac simile copy of this 
manuscript, which is one of the most perfect, is at Oxford. 



38 
In Number 1006. 

AHMHTFiov 

UsFi T/NojN 

CuZHTHGsNTwN 

A/a*TaN 

In Number 1479. 

E* . * . . . aP . . 

n . Pi . acswc 

KH 
TwN aPXa/wN 

In Number 1414. 

OiAoAHMov 
IIsP* AsiToy 

KoAAHMaTa 
CsA . ioH 



The above-mentioned Treatise upon Musick 
was by that Philodemus, whom his cotemporary, 
Cicero, calls " Optimum Virum," and " Doctis- 
simum Hominem." He was an Epicurean, and 



39 

was the author of that Greek Epigram, to which 
Horace alludes in 

" Gallis hanc, Philodemus ait." 
Upon the characters and title of this controver- 
sial Treatise, which is written against musick, 
and against its advocate, (one Diogenes, a learned 
Stoick) Winckelman has made remarks, much 
less interesting than might have been expected 
from his great talents, his experience, his know- 
ledge, and his taste ; nor could his remarks, if 
otherwise equal to his high reputation, have been 
very copious, and extensive. Every foreigner, 
before the mission, with which I was honoured 
by your Royal Highness, had, from the jealous 
vigilance, and restriction of the Neapolitan Go- 
vernment, much difficulty in obtaining access to 
any means of information, and very little exercise 
even of his sight, upon the Herculaneum manu- 
scripts. However, in this, as in every other case, 
every thing, which is written by Winckelman, 



40 

must undoubtedly possess some claim to our at- 
tention. Mazzochi prepared this Treatise of Phi- 
lodemus for publication, with much learning, yet 
with too redundant a display of quotation, of 
comment, and of criticism. Some supplements, 
which he has inserted, are inadmissible, because 
they are not commensurate with the vacant 
space ; but this publication was prevented by 
the state of total idiotism, which came upon him 
in a very advanced period of his life. At last, 
the death of this very respectable scholar, added 
to the previous relinquishment of the crown of 
the two Sicilies for that of Spain, by Charles III. 
served most effectually to deaden the efforts of, 
and by degrees to annihilate, the Herculaneum 
Society. 

The Marquis Caraccioli revived this Society 
in 1787, and appointed Charles Rosini, the pre- 
sent Bishop of Puzzuolo, to direct all the busi- 
ness of the " Papiri," which, during the idiotism 



41 

of Mazzochi, and still more after his death, were 
much neglected by Piaggi. Rosini had been 
under the patronage, and in the favour of Maz- 
zochi, from whom he obtained the possession of 
the Treatise upon Musick, most fully prepared 
for editing. This was superbly edited, in 1790, 
by Rosini himself, who, without the contribution 
of one solitary word, except his own name, 
assumed to himself the whole merit of his bene- 
factor. It may not be improper to mention, 
that General Acton, as Prime Minister, advised 
me not to have any intercourse with Rosini, 
because, in the first revolution of Naples, he 
had remained upon his Bishoprick of Puzzuolo, 
and had delivered a pastoral discourse in favour 
of the Jacobin Usurpation. In subjoining, that 
he has again served Joseph Buonaparte, and is 
still serving Murat, in the employment which I 
held there under your Royal Highness, I have 
no view whatever, but that of explaining, most 

G 



42 

satisfactorily, why, during all the time I was 
employed at Naples, this Bishop, instead of 
assisting me, did every thing in his power to 
thwart, and counteract all my proceedings. In 
fact, with such political notions, added to the 
prejudices of a bigoted Papist against a foreign 
Heretick, he could not well have supported 
towards me any other line of conduct, than what 
I invariably experienced. For the same reasons, 
Colonel La Vega, the Keeper of the Royal 
Museum, rivalling in every respect his prede- 
cessor, the Spaniard, never failed to observe 
the same deportment. The first, for the pur- 
pose of frustrating my intentions, although 
sanctioned by his Majesty's Minister, the Right 
Honourable Sir William Drummond, to publish 
the fragments of several books of Epicurus de 
Rerum Natura, which I had discovered, espe- 
cially as they seemed to excite much interest 
in the world, kept in his own hands the fac 



43 

simile copies, nearly all the time I remained at 
Naples, under various pretexts ; and at last, 
jointly with the brother of the Colonel, who was 
dead, and with the unexpected connivance of 
the Court, deprived your Royal Highness of the 
valuable engraved fac simile copies of three books 
and an half of that Philosopher. These engrav- 
ings, consequently, are now in possession of the 
existing Government at Naples. One circum- 
stance, in particular, ought not to be concealed 
from your Royal Highness ; — it is this : — I have 
already said, that Mazzochi had prepared for 
publication, as it is now printed, the Treatise, of 
Philodemus upon Musick, which the Bishop 
edited in his own name; I say more, the Bishop 
was not capable of publishing it in its present 
form. In a copy of a Treatise,* Ilsfi touvopenw 



* That copy is now at Oxford ; but it had been revised, and again 

corrected by me. 

G 2 



44 

mfjLSMrsM, which he undertook to correct, he left, 
or made, even thirty-two errors in a single 
column. Could such a corrector of a copy be 
the learned publisher of a book ? What I have 
here said, I persuade myself, will not be deemed 
either to be " extenuated, or set down in 
malice," or foreign to, or unconnected with, the 
nature and the interests of my Herculaneum 
mission ; more particularly, if it should be con- 
sidered, that these men were, nominally at least, 
associated with me in the prosecution of the 
objects of that mission. Besides these persons, 
the Neapolitan Court gave another companion, 
who really and sincerely assisted me. Your 
Royal Highness, I trust, will permit me to seize 
this occasion of expressing for this old man, who 
was a Basilian Abbot, and whose name was Foti, 
my sentiments of esteem and friendship. He was 
the best Greek scholar, with whom I ever met in 
Naples, or in Sicily. With the most unpreju- 



45 

diced candour he co-operated with me, as far as 
could be expected from heart-felt zeal, and much 
unaffected knowledge. Continually he paid the 
tribute of his warm encomiums to the disin- 
terested, munificent, and princely motives which 
influenced the Royal Patron of the undertaking. 
In a word, with truth I speak of him, as 
" Animam, qualem neque candidiorem 

Terra tulit, nee cui me sit devinctior alter." 
Before the commencement of my labours in 
1802, there had been opened, during more than 
forty years, only eighteen manuscripts. Of what 
materials their substance was formed, I have 
already mentioned. The process, or mode of 
opening them, has been described in my first 
Letter. The points, at which the " papyrace- 
ous" sheets were fastened together by a cement 
or gum, are often visible. I should conceive, that 
the longest roll, composed of these cemented 
sheets, could not have exceeded, in any instance, 



46 

forty feet, and no sheet could have been longer 
than three feet, or thereabouts; the breadth of 
the sheet, as it must naturally suggest itself, 
must constitute the length of each roll, which, 
taking all the manuscripts one with another, is 
a varying measure from somewhat less than a 
palm to something, but very little, more than a 
foot. In writing, the ancients placed the length 
of the roll horizontally, and the breadth was 
perpendicularly divided into columns, as they 
are called, or pages, with a varying interval 
between each, sometimes of more, sometimes of 
less, than an inch. When the whole mass was 
folded into a volume, or roll, (of which there is 
&fac simile at page 31) they began to fold it at 
the end. Hence, as I have observed before, the 
name of the writer and title of the work have 
hitherto, except in two instances, been found in 
the innermost part of the manuscript. Very incon- 
siderable pieces of the stick with " umbilici/' or 



47 

rollers, round which the folds were made, and of 
its heads, have been found in very rare instances ; 
but in each instance they are either pulverized, 
or reduced to a black, and friable coal. The 
colour of the volumes is extremely different, one 
from the other, in shades of a tawny, a deep or 
dark brown, and black, to that of the darkest 
charcoal. Of the latter are those of Philodemus, 
already unrolled; and all the Greek manuscripts, 
indeed, are of a blacker shade than the Latin, 
which are of the first. The inference from this 
respective state of colour in the different manu- 
scripts, must naturally be, that they were found 
in two different rooms ; one of these rooms must 
have been less affected than the other, by the 
heat of the volcanick matter. But the less any 
manuscript has been affected by that heat, the 
more difficulty has been always encountered in 
opening it, for the reason which I have assigned 
in my first Letter. It is remarkable, that all the 



48 

Latin manuscripts, which I have attempted to 
unroll, have been of a tawny, or brown colour; 
and, therefore, one of them (which is the fragment 
of a Latin poem before-mentioned) was opened 
with great difficulty. Another produced only 
unconnected scraps of broken pages, or columns, 
in a state the more to be lamented, as, from 
some common words, as well as Roman proper 
names, it might be concluded to be something 
historical. Of others, it was found totally im- 
practicable to separate the substance, even in the 
smallest portions. All these, consequently, must 
have been lodged in one of the two rooms, dif- 
ferent from that in which those of Philodemus 
and the Greek writers were kept. 

The only mode of selecting a manuscript 
from the Royal Museum for developement, was 
very simple, but not always effectual ; yet, at 
the same time, whenever the small brush, which 
they wetted and applied, in this case, to the 



49 

outside surface of a manuscript, caused the 
exterior fold to raise itself singly in a detached 
state from the next under it, that manuscript, 
most completely justified the experiment, how- 
ever simple, by a more entire separation of each 
fold in the volume, especially from the middle 
part, even to the end, and by a more entire 
preservation of letters, both in form and in 
colour. 

So many persons of erudition, and good 
sense, Russians, Germans, Swedes, Greeks, Spa- 
niards, French, Italians, and even English, said 
so much of chymical experiments, as likely to 
contribute to the greater and more productive 
facility of unfolding the most conglutinated 
masses of these manuscripts,, that I yielded, con- 
trary to my own sentiments, to their representa- 
tions. These sentiments were founded upon 
hourly observation of the variously affected sub- 
stance of several manuscripts. That observation 

H 



50 

was directed to the nature of their substance, 
and to the nature of those materials, which had 
brought them to their present state ; but as it 
was my duty not even to appear to neglect any 
means by which, it was so generally supposed, 
the undertaking might be forwarded, I thought, 

non tarn 

Turpe fuit vinci, quam contendisse decorum. 
Mr. Poli, one of those who were employed 
in the tuition of the Hereditary Prince, a man 
well known in the philosophical world, and Pre- 
sident of the Military Academy, recommended 
to me one Gaetano la Pira, as an excellent chy- 
mist, both in theory, and in experiment. This 
gentleman wrote his Proposal, together with 
his data. Broken pieces of several of the more 
impaired manuscripts, classed according to their 
respective defects, were set apart by my order 
for his inspection. After considering, during 
some time, and in detail, their defects, after 



51 

having been permitted by me to make other 
various unsuccessful attempts, at last, without 
convincing me by any single argument, which he 
adduced, he was permitted to try vegetable gas. 
The greatest part of each mass flew, under this 
trial, into useless atoms; besides, not a character 
was to be discovered upon any single piece. The 
dreadful odour drove us all from the Museum. 
This, in fact, is a part of the royal palace, which, 
if the court had been there, must, also, have 
been precipitately abandoned. 

After these experiments, I had the satisfac- 
tion of continuing, with a safer conscience, the 
process, which I have described in my first 
Letter. — This, in a second corrected edition, is 
subjoined to the present Letter. — Piaggi, the 
Inventor, was no more. Vincenzo Merli was 
justly discarded for certain revolutionary practises. 
There were, luckily for me, three other men, 
Malesci, Casanova, and Lentari, who had been 

h 2 



52 

employed with Piaggi, and Vincenso Merli, in 
unfolding the " Papiri." These men were en- 
gaged by me, not only themselves to unfold, but 
also to teach and to direct ten others, whom 
I, at different intervals, additionally took into this 
service. Two of these men, Giuseppe Casanova, 
and Carlo Orazj, both of them skilled in the art 
of design, were exclusively confined to the occu-^ 
pation of copying, in fac simile, the characters of 
each fragment, or column, which I consigned to 
them for that purpose. 

Each of these men received from me a sum 
of monthly salary, quite inadequate to their 
respective support. The compensation for this 
deficiency depended upon their own exertions, 
because, both the unfolder and copyist of any 
fragment, or column, received from me a pre- 
mium of one carlini for each line, after it had 
been copied in fac simile, with approved exact- 
ness. It will, I hope, appear to your Royal 



53 

Highness, that such an arrangement of pay was 
not ill calculated to secure the utmost diligence, 
and most attentive carefulness, both in the un- 
folder, and in the transcriber. The unfold er was 
obliged, for his own interest, to keep perpetually 
in view the necessity of unfolding for the fac 
simile transcriber as many, and as perfect lines, 
as he could, in order that he might receive a 
greater share of reward. For the same reason, 
the transcriber became an usef ill spy for me upon 
the unfolder, of whose ignorance, or inattention, 
or prejudicial violence in unfolding, he would, 
for his own sake, inform me ; at the same time 
that his zeal, and his accuracy in transcribing, 
were objects of jealous scrutiny to the unfolder, 
and were stimulated thereto by the future acqui- 
sition of correspondent recompence. In a word, 
he who unfolded, and he who copied, while 
each, for his own sake, took all possible pains, 
most advantageously checked, and animated each 
other. 



54 

This mode of payment, which I adopted, I 
would humbly beg permission to exhibit in the 
following specimens. These are extracted from 
the uninterrupted Journal, which I used to keep, 
of every proceeding, whether my own, or that of 
others under my direction, as well as of every oc- 
currence relative to the manuscripts in the Royal 
Museum at Portici. 

" ExPENCES. 

" Saturday, April 30th, 1803. 
" Io qui sotto dichiaro di aver rice vu to questo 
trentesimo di di Avrile, 1803, la somma di 
cinque ducati quarent' otto grana per le spese di 
pelle di battiloro, di carta per disegnare, di gom- 
ma, di Lapis, e di galesse, dico 

" Gio. Batta Malesci." 
" Monthly Pay. 
" Saturday, April 30th, 1803. 
" Noi qui sotto dichiriamo di aver ricevuto 
questo trentesimo di di Avrile, 1803, i nostri 



55 



soldi rispettivi per tutto questo mese spirante, 
diciamo. 

V Gio. Batta MalescL* 

" Gennaro Casanova. 



fl Antonio Lentari, 
Camillo Paderni, 
Giuseppe Casanova, 
Carlo Orazj, 
Gio. Batta Casanova, 
Giuseppe Paderni, 
Francesco Casanova, 
Gennaro Braibanti, 



Francesco Paderni, 
Luigi Corazza, 
Luigi Catalano,t 
Alessandro Paderni, 
Vincenzo Catalano, 
Saverio Galassi, 
Giachino Marinaro." 



* This man, the oldest, the most experienced, and most expert, in 
unfolding and copying, had twenty-two ducats monthly salary ; the next, 
Gennaro Casanova, eighteen ditto. The others in proportion, some ten 
ducats, others, at first, six only. Alessandro Paderni, the Under-keeper of 
the Museum, was necessarily in constant attendance, upon account of this 
very work. As he could have no premium, he received the monthly sum 
of fifteen ducats. The three Porters, much smaller sums, in respective 
gradation, 

f These thirteen persons were Unfolders, or Transcribers, and the 
•remaining names are those of the Under-keeper of the Museum, and of 
three Porters. 



56 

" Premiums. 
" Friday, May 27th, 1303. 

" Noi sotto dichiriamo d'aver ricevuto dall' 
lllmo Sigr. D. Giovanni Hayter, per lo svolgi- 
mento, assistenza, e trascrizione de' Papiri le 
somme qui appresso notate, il di 27 Maggio, 1803. 

" lo Geo. Batta Malesci per assistenza alio 
svolgimento de' Papiri, No. 207, 218, 1385, du- 
cati 22, grana 40. 

" lo Gennaro Casanova per Y assistenza alio 
svolgimento de' Papiri 994, 1056, 1428, ducati 

17. 30. 

*' lo Antonio Lentari ho ricevuto per lo 
svolgimento del Papiro 1056, ducati ondici 

11. 00, 

66 lo Guiseppe Casanova per la trascrizione 
de' Papiri 994, 1056, e 1428, e per cinque Alfa- 
beti,* ducati 35. 90. 



* Forty well- executed fac simile alphabets of different Greek ma- 
nuscripts, and one of the fragment of a Latin poem, were finished, when 



57 

u Io Carlo Orazj per trascrizioni de Papiri 
207, 218, 1385, e per tre alfabeti, ducati venti 
tre 23. 00. 

" Io Camillo Paderni per lo svolgimento del 
Papiro, No. 994, ho ricevuto, ducati trenta, 
30. 00. 

" Io Gio. Batta Casanova per lo svolgimento 
del Papiro, 218, ducati 7. 30. 

" Io Francesco Casanova ho ricevuto per lo 
svolgimento de Papiri, 207, 1385, ducati 9. 10. 

" Io Giuseppe Paderni per lo svolgimento 
del Papiro, 1428, ho ricevuto, ducati 1. 30/' 



In this extract, relative to premiums, there 
are not the names of some unfolders, which 



the approach of the French made it necessary for me to leave Naples, in 
February, 1806. Of these the copper-plate engravings are at Oxford. It 
gave me infinite satisfaction to hear Lord Grenville observe, that these 
alphabets are extremely valuable. 

I 



58 

appear in the extract of monthly pay. All, 
consequently, had not merited them. From the 
most rigorous distribution of them I never, in 
one instance, deviated. 

The following are extracts relative to the 
" Papiri" themselves. 

" Tuesday, 22d October, 1805. 

" The " Papiro," No. 300, which had been 
consigned to Don Gennaro Braibanti, was 
finished without title or name. 

" The same day, the " Papiro," No. 985, 
which had been consigned to Don Antonio Len- 
tari, was relinquished, as impracticable. 

" The same day, two other u Papiri" were 
chosen. No. 1001 was consigned to Don Anto- 
nio Lentari ; No. 816 to Don Gennaro Braibanti. 

u The same day, the " Papiro," No. 1057, 
which had been consigned to Don Francesco 
Paderni, was finished without name or title. 

" The same day, another " Papiro," No. 



59 

988, was chosen, and consigned to the said Don 
Francesco Paderni." 

" Monday, November 29th, 1805. 

" The u Papiro/"* No. 817, which had 
been consigned to Don Camillo Paderni, was 
finished. There was no name, or title, at the 
end. It was the fragment of a Latin poem. 
Many entire verses in series were found. The 
poem appears to be historical. It speaks of 
Alexandria, iEgypt, Csesar, the Battle of Ac- 
tium, a Siege, the Queen, &c* 

" The same day, another ff Papiro," No. 



* The copper- plate fac simile copy of this " Papiro" is now at 
Oxford. What an immense price, indeed, the Pere Montfaucon, whose 
grand aim in his itinerant researches, was to find in some book a specimen 
of ancient Latin orthography, would have set upon this fragment! In fact, 
the Chevalier Seratti, then Secretary of State for " Case Reali," when I 
communicated to him the discovery of this Latin fragment, exclaimed, 
with much rapture, that this discovery was worth all my pains, and all the 
expence of our Government. 

12 



(50 

831, was chosen, and consigned to the same Don 
Cainillo Paderni." 



With the pecuniary disbursements in this 
undertaking, as my employment was literary, I 
was totally unconnected. Yet, as his Majesty's 
Minister, who was then the Right Honourable 
Sir William Drummond, thought the payment 
of the persons employed would be, on account 
of my local advantage, more convenient to me 
than to himself, or any one attached to his mis- 
sion, he directed me to undertake that payment. 
With his directions I more readily complied, 
because I was justly prompted to do it by the 
most grateful esteem, and respect for him, as a 
most sincere friend, as a gentleman of distin- 
guished birth, manners, talents, erudition, and 
taste, as an amiable and most excellent man, 
who, with the sense, and the expression of most 



61 

loyal duty to the Royal Patron of my employ- 
ment, promoted it invariably, and effectually, 
with all the influence of his official situation, and 
all the warmth of personal concern, and zeal. 
These motives, I trust, will justify me to your 
Royal Highness for having added to my super- 
intendency of the Herculaneum manuscripts, 
that of the payment of money, issued by Go- 
vernment to his Majesty's Minister, as far as it 
was assigned to the persons placed by him under 
my direction. Hence it was, that, in order not 
to appear disobliging, or disrespectful, to his 
Majesty's Charge d' Affaires, William A'Court, 
Esq. before the arrival of Hugh Elliot, Esq. 
the successor of Sir William Drummond, nor 
afterwards to Mr. Elliot himself, I continued to 
superintend those payments at the Royal Mu- 
seum at Portici. Thus, what I little foresaw, I 
became a sub-accountant to the Lords Commis- 
sioners of his Majesty's Treasury, who have 



62 

lately, through George Harrison, Esq. examined 
all my accounts of Government money, as em- 
ployed ahout these manuscripts. These accounts 
were, in a manner very honourable to me, ap- 
proved by that gentleman, and afterwards 
allowed, and sanctioned, by the Lords Commis- 
sioners of his Majesty's Treasury. 

When, in the unrolling any manuscript, a 
piece reached the top of the machine, from 
which it was suspended,* such part was then cut 
off from the manuscript, and placed, and fas- 
tened by pins, upon a frame of adequate size. 
If the contents of this piece, which most gene- 
rally consisted of four columns, appeared to have 
a series of characters worth the pains, and the 
expence of copying, I consigned it to one of the 
two copyists, as soon as he was disengaged from 
transcribing any other manuscript, or any piece 
of the same manuscript. 



* 



I must again refer to the first Letter. 



63 

At the time I consigned any piece, and, 
again, after it was copied, I examined the surface 
of the respective columns with the utmost care. 
The copyist, and the unfolder, examined it with 
me, and after me. The fact was, that frequently, 
but particularly in the outward folds of each ma- 
nuscript more than in the innermost, but some- 
times in both, some particles, or even consider- 
able parts, of the preceding column, or columns, 
adhered to the subsequent. This circumstance 
was occasioned by the various injuries, which, as 
before stated, the manuscript might have re- 
ceived, or by the nature of its substance, so liable 
to conglutination in its several folds. Nor was 
this examination always successful ; each fold, 
or part, of a manuscript, was at times so un- 
substantially subtle, that the eye, with the 
assistance of the best glasses, which were alwavs 
employed in this case, could not discern, with 
the closest attention, whether the surface of the 



64 

fold, or piece, were identically single, or whether 
it had combined in itself, and received from any 
other preceding, and sometimes subsequent, 
pieces, some letters, or even words, or lines : 
Noil bene junctarum discordia semina rerim. 

If I might be permitted, I would here exem- 
plify to your Royal Highness this most trouble- 
some part of my employment. 

The first piece of the eleventh book of 
Epicurus, which, to repeated view, and minute 
observation, exhibited the appearance of a 
tolerably entire, and individual column, was 
copied, as such. As in every other instance, 
where any part of a manuscript had been copied, 
so in this, I first collated the copy with the dark 
original, letter for letter. Then I began, with 
all possible attention, mixed* however, with 
extreme distrust, both of myself, and of the 
thing itself, to attempt the interpretation. In 
the different columns of every manuscript, the 



65 

most perfectly unrolled, there have been always 
found wanting many letters, often a word, or, 
more rarely, a whole sentence, or whole sen- 
tences, respectively.* For the just interpre- 
tation, it was impossible, it would at least have 
been unjustifiable, to have proceeded otherwise, 
than I invariably used to do in the case of each 
" Lacuna." Its dimensions I exactly ascertained 
by an accurate, often retraced, mensuration. 
This rigid mensuration was then applied by me 
in the same manner, and agreeably to the form, 
under which that same manuscript presented 
every given character, to as many characters as, 



* A gentleman of distinction, to whom I was shewing the fragment 
of an exterior fold of the Latin Poem, before- mentioned, saw one single 
word, which was " nihil" This circumstance, which was naturally 
mentioned by him in society, gained a wide circulation; and thus, as I 
informed the learned Editor of the Classical Journal, reached the ingenious 
writer of an article in a late Number of that Journal* " Nihil" seems 
applied by him to my whole undertaking. 

K 



66 

conjecturally, and consistently with the supposed 
sense of the context, I wished to replace in that 
" Lacuna." When I was entirely satisfied, that 
these mensurations were accurate, and that the 
conjectural letters, thus supplied, expressed the 
very sense of the author, or, at least, some not 
inapplicable sense, the copyist was ordered by me 
to make a partial fac simile of that " Lacuna," and 
of the letter, which immediately came before it, 
and, also, of the letter, which immediately came 
after it, and, then, make in the " Lacuna" itself a 
fac simile transcript of each character, which had 
been supplied, in strict conformity to the usual 
distances between the respective letters in the 
same manuscript. When this whole process, 
admitted, " modulo, ac pede," and in aptest cor- 
respondence, my substituted, or supplied, cha- 
racters, I wrote them, in my own interpreted 
copy of that manuscript with red ink, in order 
to distinguish them from the actually existing 



67 

characters of the original. After having gone 
through this process in the quoted instance of 
the first piece of the above-mentioned eleventh 
book of Epicurus, after having repeated several 
times this process, in consequence of the altera- 
tion which, the surface, by the detachment and 
loss of several of its particles, repeatedly exhi- 
bited, I found, that after this repeated process, 
and the laboured, tormenting, and most unsatis- 
factory supplemental conjectures of a month, 
both in the Museum and at home, as well for the 
vacant letters, as for the sense, my whole inter- 
pretation was necessarily wrong. This piece, 
which was supposed to form one column, was at 
last discovered to consist of two halves, one of 
which really belonged to the situation, which it 
occupied, the other, to a preceding column. Of 
the violent transposition of characters by the 
same transposition of particles, in the same 



K 2 



68 

column, an example is afforded in the following 
extract from my Journal : 

u Wednesday, 6th February, 1805. 

u The " Papiro," No. 26, which had been 
consigned to Don Antonio Lentari, was finished, 
and at the end were the characters, 
" • Aj<dHo . Moc 

1eP TsC is . . . wN " 

In collating a transcript with the original in 
the Royal Museum, which contains a numerous 
range of apartments, I was frequently obliged, 
for the purpose of securing the distinct percep- 
tion of the real character, to pass from one 
apartment to another of a different aspect. 
Nothing but a varied light, in many instances, 
and in spite of good glasses, and good eyes, 
could secure that perception. 

What I have remarked* relative to books 



* Page 26 of this Letter, 



69 

transcribed for publick use, is confirmed by these 
manuscripts. The vowels, except the H, and 
sometimes the t), are never capitals; the conso- 
nants always. In the Latin manuscript there is 
a full stop between each word ; in the Greek 
manuscripts no stop of any description between 
words and sentences. Sections, or paragraphs, 
are distinguished, in some instances, by a mark, 
or by the intervention of a vacant space, or by 
both, and, also, in others, numerically. Each 
line is promiscuously closed; its end is never 
denoted by the end of a syllable. Even an end 
of a column itself is not syllabically distinguished 
from the beginning of another* Both in lines 
and in columns, these manuscripts shew, that the 
ancients would never spell in their orthographical 
arrangements. 

Accents have not been discovered, hitherto, 
in any manuscript, except upon the long 



70 

syllables of the Latin poem ;* all these accents 
are acute. What a just trophy to the memory 
of that excellent scholar, the late Dr. Foster, of 
Eton, under whom I received my education, and, 
in the course of it, much undeserved favour, have 
I been the means of raising, with heartfelt 
satisfaction, and most thankful triumph, while I 
developed these manuscripts. He had, in his 
Essay, convinced, I believe, literary men in 
general, that, at least, his opponents were in the 
wrong, with regard to the date, and use of the 
Greek accentual marks. These manuscripts, which 
are of the remotest authenticity in the world, have, 
undeniably, proved, that he was in the right. 

It may not be improper to mention here, 
one or two orthographical singularities in these 
manuscripts. In the first place, a long iota, as 
we write it single (e. g.) in rpifio, &c. is in them 



* As I have said, p. 28. 



71 

written as the diphthong si. The same verb still 
retains this diphthong in those tenses where the 
iota would be long by position ; e. g. EKiTpei-tyeiev. 
The iota subscript in them, as in ancient inscrip- 
tions, is not as it means, and as it is now written 
and printed, under the vowel, but always after it. 
Where a verse occurs, and in the case where a 
long vowel before a short one forms a short second 
syllable, as now printed and written, that it may 
constitute a dactyl foot, that dactyl here becomes 
a spondee. The third syllable, or short vowel, is 
totally omitted, i. e. immersed in the preceding 
long vowel. For instance, the Treatise upon 
Death* was, by Lord Grenville himself, perused 



* Of this elegant, interesting Greek Treatise, and of the fragment of 
the Latin Poem, the engraved fac simile copies are now at Oxford. The 
copper-plates, which were left at Palermo by one of the Ring's Messen- 
gers, to the care of Mr. Abraham Gibbs, are now, it is said, on board of 
his Majesty's Ship, Warrior. This ship, it is said, is on its passage home, 
if, indeed, it be not yet arrived. 



72 

lately, with all the critical judgment, philology, 
and attention, of a real scholar, both in the 
original, and in my interpreted supplied copy, 
where I had inserted in red ink an s, in the 
following passage. His Lordship, at the time, 
justly remarked to me, that, in the original pas- 
sage, no vacant space, or any other indication, 
proved the want, or the loss of an s : that the 
quotation, as it thus stood in the original, 
namely, 

TPo<HN evVeiH 
legitimately shewed, what the ancient pure 
orthography was : that the modern intrusion of 
g, and, in similar instances, the extension of the 
spondee into a dactyl, to avoid this orthogra- 
phical crasis, was, therefore, contrary to classical 
rule, in all the editions of Homer, and of any 
other Greek poet, edited by the moderns* 

The sigma, in all the manuscripts, has the 
figure, its most ancient figure, which it always 



73 

had, except in the Dorick Colonies, of our C. 
It deserves our notice, that in the Latin frag- 
ment, that syntax, to which we pay the most 
religious attention, is not exemplified. If a boy 
at Eton, or at any other school, had written, 

Simul terrestribus armis, 
as it is found in that fragment, instead of, simul 
cum terrestribus armis, would he not have been 
deemed to have violated the rules of good gram- 
mar, through ignorance, or through neglect? 

These specimens are competent to prove to 
your Royal Highness, that the orthography of 
grammar, and of writing, has varied in more 
modern times, and also at present, from the 
genuine Greek, and Latin standard of classical 
antiquity. But upon this subject I have expa- 
tiated at considerable length, in a Dissertation,- 
which I have prepared, as a requisite Preface to 
any Herculaneum Manuscript, of which the 



74 

learned University of Oxford may direct me to 
superintend the publication. 

Not only the name of the writer, and the 
bare title of the work, have been discovered at 
the end of a manuscript, but sometimes there 
has been found a more detailed title of the work, 
as in No. 336.* Frequently I met with the 
number of the volume of the work. This was 
denoted by letters, as was universally the 
practice among the Greeks. For instance, <a, 
i. e. eleven, in Number 1042-t In Number 
1027, X the number of lines is said to be, as 
expressed by letters, 3238. In Number 1414,$ 
not only the lines, but, also, the KoAAn^ara, or 
fastenings with cement, (i. e. pieces joined toge- 
ther) are mentioned. Of the former, the number, 
at least the first numeral, or, perhaps, two prior 
numerals, obliteration has made imperfect. Of 

* Page 37. f Pa g e 36 ' t Pa S e 3 7- § Page 38. 



75 

the second, the remaining indications are so im- 
perfect, that I have not attempted to conjecture, 
or even ventured to insert them. 

In all the specimens of final inscriptions, 
which are given in pages 37, and 38, I have 
designedly exhibited all the vowels, except H, as 
of a size really less than in the original manu- 
scripts. I thought that I could thus distinguish 
them better from the consonants, which are all, 
invariably, capitals. In the greatest part of the 
original manuscripts, as may be seen by the fac 
simile copies, the vowels, as they are not capitals, 
rise not to the height of the consonants, except 
in Philodemus. In the greatest part of his 
manuscripts all the vowels rise to the height of 
the consonants. Hence his omicron appears to 
be a capital. 

The dialect of the fragments of the eight 
books of Epicurus is attick ; that of Polystratus, 
and Colotes, is so to a certain degree only. The 

12 



76 

dialect of the Treatise upon Anger, I think, is 
somewhat attick : the language of that Treatise, 
in general, is superior to all the rest. 

If one except the Latin Poem, the subjects 
of all the manuscripts at Oxford are biographical, 
or physical, or philological, or moral, or theolo- 
gical. In different places of different works, 
there are short poetical quotations from lost 
poets. One quotation from the Odyssey is 
incalculably precious, because we find, in this 
quotation, the same language, expression for 
expression, as in the present editions. The 
whole of the present text, therefore, of the poet, 
boasts an authenticity of a very remote period, 
certainly not less than sixteen hundred and 
thirty-two years, if an illative argument of this 
nature may be regarded as of weight in this 
case, which, as purely accidental, is unquestion- 
ably freer from cavil, than most other cases. It 
may be added, with great truth, that all these 
manuscripts, which 



77 

- nee ignes, 

Nee poterat ferrum, nee edax abolere vetustas, 
even if the consideration of their high antiquity 
be excluded, even if no value be affixed to 
them, as the most legitimate criterions of ortho- 
graphy in the two learned languages, these ma- 
nuscripts, I must say, are still inestimable, 
because the compositions, preserved in them, had 
been supposed to have been irrecoverably lost. 

What immense sums are given by the 
lovers, and protectors, both of ancient and 
modern literature, for editions of books, whose 
authors, although in some instances of the 
greatest celebrity, yet are most familiarly com- 
mon. In the stall of the bookseller, in the 
private collection of many individuals, the sen- 
tences, or smaller scraps, preserved from the 
wreck of ancient Greece and Rome, ever com- 
mand the most partial attention. The most 
broken chip of Menander would secure any sum 



78 

whatsoever, which, however great, yet would 
scarcely be regarded as an equivalent, from the 
unsparing hands of the purchaser. Besides, 
intellectual works are always allowed a more ele- 
vated rank, than those of manual art, and yet 
vases and cameos, and other works of great 
antiquity, and sometimes of suspected antiquity, 
become, too frequently, an absurdly exorbitant 
acquisition. Statues are, most undoubtedly, the 
most valuable among the works of art. In this 
instance, men of taste submit to the hardest 
terms of the mercenary antiquarian, so as to 
obtain possession of an entire, or mutilated, 
figure, that was formed even in the decline of 
Greek, and, what is still more, of Roman sta- 
tuary. In the latter, it is not alone the 

. . Curii jam dimidii, nasoque minores, 
even the statue of an Augustulus, or one of 
more recent date, would seem to justify, perhaps, 
the most unconscientious estimate of a " vir- 



79 

tuoso." Yet, what should be said of them, in 
comparison with these manuscripts, the most 
ancient in the known world ? A fair calcu- 
lation, deduced from these editions of books, and 
from those works of manual art, as contrasted 
with intellectual, enhance the worth of the ma- 
nuscripts, now at Oxford, beyond the very enor- 
mous calculations, frequently made to me by very 
respectable foreigners ! Had they not been a 
property, so rich in the high renown of your 
Royal Highness, or, if I may be permitted to 
descend so far, had they belonged to the person, 
who was employed in superintending them, 
under your Royal authority, that person, most 
certainly, need not have proposed, because there 
was repeatedly offered almost any sum, which he 
could have proposed in his own right, for trans- 
ferring them to others. But the very idea of a 
pecuniary valuation of these manuscripts, must 
make every liberal person feel their great intrin- 



80 

sick value, by making him fee], that every idea 
of that nature, at once both debases them, and 
him, who conceives, and expresses it. 

When your Royal Highness was pleased to 
appoint me to this literary mission, in the year 
1800, the Right Honourable Earl Spencer 
directed the Serapis store ship to convey me to 
Palermo. But as this ship was obliged to stop at 
Minorca, the Genereux took me from that island 
to Genoa, which surrendered to his Majesty's 
fleet, and Imperial army, a few days after, I 
came into that Bay. It is, I hope, not to be 
regarded by your Royal Highness as too inad- 
missible among the contents of this Letter to 
mention, from ocular proof, a strange, and almost 
incredible example of contempt for literature, 
and of Gothick, or rather Mahometan, outrage, 
which some soldiers of the French garrison 
exhibited in the Archiepiscopal Library of Genoa. 
From many volumes of valuable works in dif- 



81 

ferent languages, and from many other volumes, 
edited in the most superb manner, and magni- 
ficently bound, these ruffians had torn many 
leaves, and parts of leaves, to kindle the tobacco 
of their pipes. 

Lord Keith, on board the Minotaur, re- 
ceived me with all the attention, which was due 
to a servant of your Royal Highness. In his 
orders to the Captain of the Sicilian corvette, 
which was dispatched to Palermo to commu- 
nicate the surrender of Genoa, the noble Lord 
did me the honour to require for me from the 
Captain, who received me on board, the same 
treatment, as would have been expected for 
himself. It was the middle of June, when I 
arrived at Palermo. The late Lord Nelson, with 
her Sicilian Majesty, and the late Sir William, 
together with Lady Hamilton, had just quitted 
it. The Right Honourable Sir Arthur Paget, 
K. B. then his Majesty's Minister at that 

M 



82 

Court, immediately paid all the most attentive 
deference to your Royal commands, and to the 
letter, which your Royal Highness yourself had 
been pleased to condescend to write to him, 
concerning me, and my mission. General 
Acton had previously received a duplicate of my 
dispatches. 

After a week or two, during which I expe- 
rienced every species of most hospitable, most 
liberal, and most friendly, treatment from Sir 
Arthur Paget, at Palermo, the Sicilian frigate, 
Arethusa, was ordered by the Sicilian Court to 
convey me to Naples, where Prince Cassaro, 
after the departure of the French from that 
capital, was Viceroy, and where the Hercula- 
neum Manuscripts, the object of my mission, 
were supposed, by General Acton, to be. 

When I shewed my Credentials, and the 
Royal Order from Sicily, to the Viceroy, Zurlo, 
Secretary of State for Case Reali, or Casa Reale, 



83 . 

was present in the apartment. That gentleman, 
who was a lawyer of ability, with some erudi- 
tion, informed the astonished Viceroy, that the 
manuscripts had been during the late disturbances 
removed to Palermo. This unexpected infor- 
mation, as it would oblige me to return to Sicily, 
so it excited my immediate curiosity to enquire 
more about these " reliquias Danaum," the 
manuscripts, so very little regarded by the Court, 
that necessarily, as it was altogether unconscious, 
where they existed, it must have been equally 
unconscious, whether they existed. In the course 
of this enquiry with Zurlo, and with that La 
Vega, whom I mentioned before, as Keeper of 
the Royal Museum, and with others, I found, 
that the manuscripts had been placed, with the 
utmost care, in several . large chests. In these 
chests, all the intervals between the respective 
manuscripts, were separated, one from the other, 
and were filled properly, as well as most effectually, 

M 2 



. 84 

against the injuries of violent motion, with large 
quantities of sawdust ; that in this secure state 
they had been conveyed, at the time the Court 
retired from Naples, to Palermo. That these 
" reliquiae Danaum" were presented for reception 
at the Royal Palace ; there they were disowned, 
like a pauper of disputed settlement. Then the 
Overseers conveyed them to the Royal Maga- 
zines at the Mole There, too, they were 
regarded as inadmissible vagrants, and sent back 
to the Palace- In this way, these miserable, un- 
acknowledged outcasts were passed again to the 
Magazines, where they luckily gained a settle- 
ment, because, at last, some Custom-house 
Officer, by some strange accident,, asked a yawn- 
ing question, or two, about them, and, in conse- 
quence, yet without knowing what they were, 
he settled them in a Magazine, because they had 
been brought from Naples on board the same ship 
of the line, which had brought their Sicilian 
Majesties. 



85 

After my return to Palermo, Sir Arthur 
Paget, as soon as he had ascertained the ex- 
istence, and the locality, of these manuscripts, 
interfered at the Court, with the most active 
kindness, and procured a Royal Order for the 
placing them under my superintendency, and 
for developing them. 

In June, 1801, just before his departure for 
Vienna, Sir Arthur Paget was authorized by the 
present Earl of Liverpool, in an official letter, to 
advance to me, for carrying into execution the 
development of the manuscripts, twelve hundred 
pounds, upon the account of Government. But 
the Sicilian Court had not yet determined what 
place in Palermo should be allotted for receiving 
these manuscripts, and for unfolding them. Sir 
Arthur Paget, to whom I was under great obli- 
gations, and for whom I bear most sincere 
respect, left Palermo, unfortunately, before any 
thing could be properly arranged in my business. 



86 

This gentleman visited England, before he went 
to Vienna. 

How can I express the just acknowledg- 
ments due to Sir Arthur Paget, for his unex- 
pected goodness in obtaining for me from Lord 
Sidmouth, then First Lord of his Majesty's 
Treasury, a very regular appointment? This he 
obtained, too, without any previous intimation 
to any one, that he would do it, and, to my 
great, and most pleasing surprise, with a retro- 
spective date, from the day, I left England in 
April 1800. Some months afterwards, indeed, 
intelligence of this appointment was communi- 
cated to me in a letter, which the Right 
Honourable Mr. Vansittart, then Secretary of 
the Treasury, did me the honour of writing. 
This official letter was, in all probability, very 
different from any official letter, which, either 
before or since, has been issued from his Ma- 
jesty's Treasury, by order of the Lords Com- 



87 

missioners. That Right Honourable Gentleman, 
who is an excellent scholar, did me the great 
credit of testifying his personal satisfaction in 
my appointment ; and, in the same letter, was 
pleased to furnish me with the learned, and most 
useful means of conjecture relatively to the 
author of any nameless manuscript, by a 
laboured, and correct enumeration of the names, 
and the subjects of ancient writers, whose works 
have been lost ! It is his unspeakable merit, 
in this letter, that what he did, he did, ipse 
quidem volvendis, transeundisque multis admodum 
voluminibus per omnia semper uegotiorum intervalla, 
in quibus furari otium potuit. 

Robert Waldron, Esq. the private Secretary 
of the late Minister, was left at Palermo as his 
Charge d* Affaires. At his representation to the 
Sicilian Government, some rooms in the Ex- 
Jesuit College of San Francesco Saverio were 
prepared for the purpose of unfolding the manu- 



88 

scripts. The three persons, . whom I before 
stated, in this letter, to have been employed 
under Piaggi, were ordered by the Court to 
come from Naples, and to be under my direction. 
Many impediments, however, were raised against 
the completion of this establishment, by one 
Vivenzo, a King's Surgeon, who is, perhaps, the 
most SifjLQvgog of all men, and said to be better dis- 
posed to the French, than to his Majesty's sub- 
jects. This man, who had secured the other 
parts of the same college for a military hospital, 
observed, that he had nothing to do with the 
Prince of Wales, nor with books ; he cared for 
neither, and thought it very hard, he said, and 
very strange, that for them he should be deprived 
of so much room. 

But from this man, and every other senseless 
difficulty, I was soon released, by the arrival of 
Sir William Drummond, his Majesty's Minister. 
His very judicious decision was, that, as he 



80 

himself, and the Court, would soon go to Naples, 
these manuscripts should be replaced in their 
former situation at the Royal Museum of Portici, 
which was infinitely more suited to the nature 
of my undertaking, and where he could forward 
the progress in the most immediate, and most 
advantageous manner, by his official authority, 
protection, and interference. In that museum 
they began to unfold the manuscripts, which had 
been all safely conveyed thither from Palermo, 
the 23d of January, 1802. It must naturally 
be supposed, as the case is, that the most perfect 
of the manuscripts were those eighteen, which, 
as I before observed, were unfolded before my 
arrival. Piaggi, having the choice of all, for his 
own sake, had selected the most promising. 

General Acton informed me, that M. Al- 
quier, the Ambassador of France, had urged, 
and continued incessantly to urge, the claim of 
his Government upon these Herculaneum m^nu- 

N 



90 

scripts. The flattering attention, which this 
Ambassador paid me, as elsewhere, so at his 
own house, for his Majesty had just then con- 
cluded a peace with France, the high, but 
merited, compliments, which he took every 
opportunity of presenting to the name of your 
Royal Highness in general, and in particular as 
the Patron of my employment, were at once 
inconsistent in themselves with his demand upon 
General Acton, and altogether consistent with the 
principles of the French revolutionary school. 
Sir William Drummond took a silent, but most 
weighty notice of the conduct of M. Alquier, 
by totally counteracting it. Once, or twice, the 
Ambassador, with Sir William Drummond, and 
the Chevalier Souza, the Portuguese Minister, 
honoured me with their company in the house 
which his Sicilian Majesty gave me, near the 
Royal Museum, at a dejeune. 

In my Instructions I was said to be nomi- 



91 

nated as Superintendent on the part of your 
Royal Highness ; but his Sicilian Majesty made 
me sole Superintendent, and, also, Academico 
Ercolanese. 

The late Colonel La Vega, the Keeper of 
the Museum, Malesci, the principal Unfolder, 
assisted by the Prelate Rosini, endeavoured to 
thwart me in every respect, and, in some respects, 
actually thwarted me. Malesci had been very 
forward in the first Revolution of Naples, in 
favour of the enemy.* This trio would repre- 
sent to each of the individuals, whom I engaged 
in this service, that I was an Eretico.^ It would 
be irreligious in them to observe me so much as 
them : that they were not the subjects of his 



Why this Malesci was not removed from the Museum, as well as 
Vincenzo Merli, it is difficult to conceive an adequate reason. 

f Vide Page 42. 

n2 



92 

Majesty, but of another Sovereign, who looked 
with an extremely jealous eye upon the foreign 
stipends, which they received ; that, as to me, I 
was not of nobiltd Inglese, they ought not, there- 
fore, to respect me, notwithstanding my Royal 
Commission. This excellent trio, with nume- 
rous other insinuations, that did equal credit to 
their head, and to their heart, tried, not always 
successfully, to mislead the unfolders, and the 
copyists. It ought to be mentioned, and, I 
trust, with your Royal approbation, that, when 
I appointed any one to this service, it was my 
constant rule, whosoever, and how many soever, 
the candidates were, to give the preference to 
the son of any person in the service of the 
Court, if he were equally as well qualified for 
the purpose as the rest. 

The before-mentioned Signor Zurlo, Secre- 
tary of State for the Department, under which 
the Royal Museum was placed, was ever ready 



93 

to comply with any request, and substantially 
attend to any representations, which, through his 
Majesty's Minister, I made at any time to the 
Government. But within some few months he 
was replaced by a man of a very different cha- 
racter, the Chevalier Seratti, much more of 
whom I shall be obliged to say in a subsequent 
page of this Letter. 

Sir William Drummond, to my great regret, 
quitted Naples for Constantinople, in the spring 
of 1803. In the interval, before his successor, 
Hugh Elliot, Esq. arrived, Mr. A'Court, Secre- 
tary of Legation, and Charge d* Affaires, conti- 
nued the same mode of payment, which had 
been practised by Sir William Drummond, for 
the individuals under my superintendency. If 
my recollection be not erroneous, this gentleman, 
during some alarm, occasioned by the supposed 
intention of the French troops to march towards 
Naples, after the rupture of the peace between 



94 

his Majesty and France, expressed himself much 
disposed to insist, that should Naples be occu- 
pied by the enemy, I should be permitted to 
take with me to Sicily the whole of the manu- 
scripts, both original, and copies. Hugh Elliot, 
Esq. his Majesty's new Minister, seemed to en- 
tertain some doubts, how far, as he had received 
no particular instructions from Government, rela- 
tively to the Herculaneum Manuscripts, he was 
authorised to interfere officially with me, or them. 
He, therefore, would not put his own signature 
to a draft upon Government for the expences of 
the manuscripts ; but directed me to give Messrs. 
Falconet and Co. the draft in my own name, 
yet to express in the draft, that I drew it by his 
order. With this direction I complied ; yet, I 
must own, I was apprehensive this draft might 
be deemed by his Majesty's Government to be 
some personal presumption, as unofficial. — 
Besides, I could not divest myself of a firm per- 



95 

suasion, that, as I had been commissioned by the 
Heir Apparent himself, and as, also, I enjoyed an 
appointment from, and therefore was in the 
service of, his Majesty's Government ; and what 
is more, as even an Act of Parliament had been 
passed for disbursing the expences of these 
manuscripts, my application to his Majesty's 
Minister for his draft was not entirely without 
foundation, and could not be taxed with much 
impropriety. 

As at the commencement of the year 1806, 
it was well known that his Sicilian Majesty in- 
tended to leave Naples, and that the Queen, 
and the Royal Family, would also be obliged 
soon afterwards to leave it, I thought it my duty 
to solicit the official interposition of his Majesty's 
Minister for the removal of the manuscripts, 
both originals, and copies. The want of instruc- 
tion from Government for that purpose, I was 
told, still prevented his official interposition ; at 



96 

the same time his Majesty's Minister directed 
me to go in his name to the Chevalier Seratti, 
with a representation of the necessity, there was 
to remove these objects. This Secretary of 
State, instead of entering immediately into the 
subject of my visit, chose, with great violence, 
and with foaming mouth, and in the most unjus- 
tifiable terms, to heap upon me, whose mission 
was certainly not at all political, the most heavy 
invectives against his Majesty's forces, which had 
been landed at Naples. At last, having, in the 
course of an half hour, most amply vented his 
rage, he returned, in a softened tone, to the 
cause of my visit : he assured me, that removal 
would injure the original " Papiri," and was 
besides not necessary ; " we shall soon be at 
Naples again " 

After the departure of the King, the Here- 
ditary Prince was Regent of the kingdom* For 
the same reason, and in the same manner, as his 



97 

Majesty's Minister had not yet received instruc- 
tions, I was directed to wait upon his Royal 
Highness, who informed me, that the King, at 
the time of his departure, in which he was 
accompanied by the Chevalier Seratti, had given 
strict orders for not removing the manuscripts. 
From these orders the Regent could not deviate. 
It must be confessed, the political character of 
Chevalier Seratti was generally regarded as not 
favourable to the interests of Great Britain, but 
strongly inclining to the French party. What- 
ever may be the truth, / must have some right 
to question his good faith, at least, when 

Nee cineri servata Fides 

The Chevalier de' Medici succeeded the 
Chevalier Seratti in office. The Monday before 
our flight from Naples, in February, 1 806, I was 
again directed, upon my application to his Ma- 
jesty's Minister, who had not yet received his 
instructions, to go to the new Secretary of State. 

o 



98 

The Chevalier, who was not then, it should 
seem, in the secret, desired I would, in his name, 
order Pirro Paderni, who had succeeded La 
Vega, as Keeper of the Royal Museum, imme- 
diately to prepare all the " Papiri" for removal. 
This I did about noon that very day. Pirro 
Paderni expressed much alacrity in his apparent 
readiness to execute this order ; but he told me, 
that he would go that very afternoon to the 
Secretary of State, from whom, for his own se- 
curity, after the orders of the King, he must 
in person receive a written command for the 
purpose. The whole scene was then shifted. 
The next morning I was informed, the orders of 
the King, with regard to these manuscripts, were 
in revived force. What else could be expected? 
Your Royal Highness may be pleased to con- 
sider that the Chevalier Seratti, and others still 
higher, who were never suspected of too much 
Anglicism, would, in the instance of these manu- 



99 

scripts, avail themselves of every circumstance, 
that seemed to justify a non-compliance with 
the demands of your Royal Highnesses Superin- 
tendent. The circumstance, that his Majesty's 
Minister would not officially, much less urgently, 
insist upon the removal of the manuscripts, gave 
the party, who opposed that removal, a fair pre- 
text for that opposition. This party said, and / 
heard it repeated, that this removal could not 
have been wished by Government, otherwise his 
Majesty's Minister would have interposed. So 
far this party may be thought to be supported 
by some justification, provided your Royal 
Highness could, for a moment, be reconciled to 
the measure of abandoning to the common 
enemy those objects. For the acquisition of 
them a person had been sent to Naples, under 
your own Royal Commission, and received in 
that character by the Neapolitan Court. In the 
acquisition of them that person had several years 



100 

employed the most continual, and the most em- 
barrassing study, and fatigue, and at the ex- 
pence of his Majesty's Government, and under 
the sanction of an Act of Parliament, in the 
Kingdom of a Sovereign, who is under the most 
essential obligations to Great Britain. With the 
beforementioned pretext, however, not only all 
the original manuscripts, which would be in- 
jured, it was said, by removal, but even the 
engraved* fac simile copies of some books of 
Epicurus, unfolded during my superin tendency, 
(and surely these could not be injured by removal) 
were abandoned to the common enemy. Besides, 
this pretext enabled two different parties to 
secure the attainment of their wishes, directed 



* The Neapolitan Government would never permit me to pay the 
expences, which attended the engraving. This apparent liberality was 
eventually proved to be, in the utmost sense of the expression, AwpQV 



101 

as they were, upon different motives, to the same 
end. The one branch consisted in those men, 
who would not follow the Court to Sicily. These 
men must have been eager to retain at Naples 
all the Royal property, which would gratify thei 
new masters, and secure for themselves, to 
any degree, means of indulgence, or protection. 
The other branch consisted of those, who had 
been employed about these manuscripts; Rosini, 
Peter la Vega, the unfolders,* and the copyists, 
wished to retain, as, in fact, they retain, the 
same employment under the French. Both 
these branches of the same party, protected by 
the Queen, obtained, through Seratti, the King's 
order for not removing these manuscripts, nor 
those engraved fac simile copies. To these mo- 
tives must be added another, if I may call indif- 



* With the exception of Camillo, and Francesco Paderni, who went to 

Palermo. 



102 

fcrence a motive, for relinquishing these manu- 
scripts. This indifference of men in the two 
Sicilies with regard to literature in general, and 
therefore with regard to these manuscripts, is 
remarkable. For instance, a Marquis Berio, 
with whom I was well acquainted, had one of 
the best libraries in the world. He possessed 
the reputation of learning, and of the encourage- 
ment of the learned. This eminent Letterato> 
in the frequent visits he made me at Portici, 
would always come to my own house, to the 
Museum never. A man of that country, now 
high in office at Palermo, asked me, whether the 
text of those famosi papiri were not Arabick. 

More than two hundred " Papiri" had been 
opened wholly, or in part, during my stay at 
Naples. The experience of every day had added 
infinite facility, and skill, with accurate, and 
secure, but rapid dexterity, to each unfolder, 
and copyist. Hence, with these increasing 



103 

advantages, every one of the remaining fifteen 
hundred, or as many of them as could be 
opened, would be opened, and copied, it was 
reasonably, and universally calculated, within 
the space of six years at the most. The enemy 
can, therefore, in addition to the original manu- 
scripts themselves, enjoy the advantage of this 
improved skill in the persons, whom I employed 
about them. 

When I retired with the fac simile copies 
alone, in February, 1806, from Naples to Paler- 
mo, there I remained, as it was my duty to 
remain, until I should be honoured with your 
Royal commands* for my return to England. 
Besides, as it was thus incumbent upon me to 
stay, so, while I stayed, I was continually flat- 



* An exact copy of the letter, in which those commands were 
communicated to me at Alcamo, by Lord Amherst, his Majesty's Minister 
at that time, is inserted as follows : 



104 

tered with the hopes of resuming my superiu- 
tendency of the manuscripts at Portici. For 
some time the Court, as it was generally said, 
was in expectation of a counter-revolution in 
its favour at Naples. 

During my residence at Palermo, I com- 
posed and printed a Latin Poem, entitled Her- 
culaneum, humbly addressed to your Royal 
Highness. This Poem will not be published 



" Palermo, 
" 16th July, 1809. 



Sir, 



" The bearer of this letter, Mr. Hunter, jun. a King's 
Messenger, is sent to you by his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, 
with instructions respecting your return to England. I doubt not that you 
will pay due obedience to his Royal Highness's commands. 

" I am, Sir, 
" Your obedient, humble Servant, 

" AMHERST. 
" The Reverend 

" John Hayter." 



105 

here for the present, because the subject for the 
Prize Exercises this year in the University of 
Oxford is the very same with that of my Poem. 
This point of requisite delicacy was suggested 
to me by Mr. Tyrwhitt, a gentleman, who, as 
he is high in the service, and is, in every respect, 
<a most disinterested, unalterably attached, and 
faithful servant of your Royal Highness, so, in 
receiving, and executing all your Royal Com- 
mands, concerning these Herculaneum Manu- 
scripts, has ever displayed the most zealous, most 
uniform, and most laudable, attention* 

At Palermo it was in vain that I applied to 
the Chevalier Seratti to obtain permission to have 
for my use, and with a view to publication, 
a single manuscript, that is, a single fac simile 
copy, of all the fac simile copies, which were 
brought from Naples, although they had been 
unfolded, and copied, under my direction, and 
although they had all been corrected, and many 



106 

of them had been interpreted, and translated, 
by myself. This Minister of State wished, as 
he had with the most corrupt, and most inde- 
corous misconduct, contributed, to deprive your 
Royal Highness of all the original manuscripts, 
and of some of the most valuable engraved 
fac simile copies, to have been also as success- 
fully guilty with regard to all those fac simile 
copies. The auspicious return of the Right 
Honourable Sir William Drummond, his Ma- 
jesty's Minister at that Court, this second time 
the successor, as the first time the predecessor, 
of Hugh Elliot, Esq., defeated all the intentions 
of the Chevalier Seratti. The Chevalier de' 
Medici, the successor of the Chevalier Seratti, 
complied at once with the demands of Sir Wil- 
liam Drummond, and consigned to him, by 
order of the King, all the fac simile copies, 
which are now at Oxford. Of these, the Trea- 
tise upon Death, and the Fragment of the 



107 

Latin Poem, together with the Greek and Latin 
Alphabets, were immediately engraved under my 
superintendency at Palermo. 

Permit me now, Sir, to express the proud 
satisfaction, I feel, that your Royal Highness 
deigns to accept, with gracious indulgence, this 
account of my Herculaneum Mission, of its 
nature, of its progress, and its result. That 
progress was arrested ; — that result was rendered 
less important, and less productive, by the inva- 
sion of the enemy, and by the misconduct of 
friends. Yet, in this general cause, and interest 
of literature, your Royal Highness has been 
pleased to give to the University of Oxford, and, 
through that University, to the world, most 
convincing proofs, convincing both by their 
number, and in their intrinsick value, that the 
result of my mission, in spite of many unfavour- 
able circumstances, is more satisfactory, than 
could have been expected. Mankind, at least, 

p 2 



108 

must be of opinion, that the Patronage of this 
general cause, and interest, was not unsuitable 
to the exalted Dignity of the Heir Apparent of 
the British Empire. In the impartial judgment, 
and register of posterity, in the bright annals of 
true renown, the name of your Royal Highness 
will be inseparably associated with this general 
cause, and interest of reason, and of knowledge, 
and will be indelibly recorded. 

With the most devoted sentiments of 
loyalty, I humbly beg permission to subscribe 
myself, 

SIR, 

Your Royal Highnesses most dutiful, 
And most faithful Servant, 

JOHN HAYTER, 

London, 
April 20th, 1811. 



APPENDIX. 



HERCULANEUM.* 



O ! Regni, et Britonum spes altera, maxime 

Princeps, 
Cui genus excelsum, Georgique insignius astro 
Effulget procul, et medio caput aethere condit, 
Tu carmen ne sperne, precor, ne vota canentis : 
Auspiciis et siqua tuis tibi florea texam 5 

Serta legens studio memori, quot millia pingit 
Sebeti ad sacros latices Acheloia Musae 
Filia Parthenope, quamvis indigna ferentem 



* The Exordium of the Poem, see page 104. 



110 

Excipias vultu praesenti. Manera Vates 

Ouis Tibi digna feret! magni quin Nominis 

obstat 10 

Et Decus, et Virtus, et inani dejicit auso. 
O ! si Maeonio possem te dicere versu, 
Augustamque pari famam resonare camaena, 
Tunc canerem, quanto quae gratia! qui decor oris! 
Quot mille incessu veneres, quot mille loquenti 15 
Arrident lepidae, corpusque per omne viriles 
Ornatus blando placituros lumine fundunt ! 
Tu quanto, Gradivi instar, molimine belli 
Instrumenta cies, siquando animosa cupido 
Laudis in arma rapit, patriaque accendit inulta ! 20 
Quam Peditum instructas acies, Equitumque 

catervas 
Ducisque innumeros, subitoque reducis in orbes 
Imperio exercens agili ! Quam Tu obvius hosti 
Ire paras, populo invito ! nam carior illi 
Vita tua est, Gallis quam gloria parta subactis. 25 
Tu procerum, et vulgi fido discrimine vindex 



Ill 

Jura foves, Legesque sacras, civiliter sequus, 
Et fas, et morem cultu, normaque tueris. 
Sed Tibi prsecipua dulces ante omnia Musae 
Pertentant animum cura, positasque resumunt,30 
Te revocante, lyras, quamquam formidine vexet 
Gallorum furor, et convulso terreat Orbi. 
Ipse Tuo emensus longi maris aequora jussu 
Euboici demum consedi ad littoris oram 
Sarrasten, Graiosque Phlegraea in sede colonos, 35 
Ut peragrem Argolicas loca per combusta Vesevi 
Relliquias : ut pumiceo conclusa sepulcro 
Hercules monumenta urbis, doctasque favillas 
Imis eripiam tenebris, molique Typhaeae. 



A NEW EDITION 



OF THE 



FIRST LETTER, 

ADDRESSED, WITH PERMISSION, 

TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS 

THE PRINCE OF WALES- 



Q 



PREFATORY REMARK 

UPON 

THIS NEW EDITION. 



In this Letter, when a very limited number of 
its copies was published, before my departure 
in 1800, there were some errors, occasioned by 
the want of requisite accuracy in those to whom 
I was referred in this country, for the most au- 
thentick information. These errors I am com- 
manded, because personal observation enables 
me, to correct ; and thus corrected, and repub- 
lished, this Letter is only preparatory to the 
publication of a second Letter, addressed, with 
permission, to the same illustrious Personage, 
and containing a narrative of all which either has 
been done, or has occurred in the prosecution of 
this laborious, and difficult undertaking. 

Q 2 



TO 



THE PRINCE. 



sit Numine vestro 



Pandere res alta terra, et caligine mersas. Via. 



SIR, 

It is with the most humble sense of 
duty ^nd respect, that I solicit the honour of 
being permitted to lay before your Royal High- 
ness these few pages, which embrace, in a short, 
and summary account, the whole object of your 
very important design. May your Royal High- 
ness deign to accept this Paper, as the first fruits, 
as it were, of the mission, to which you have 
been most graciously pleased to appoint me, and 
as a tributary pledge of the zeal and assiduity, 
with which I shall never cease to be actuated in 



118 

obeying your Commands, while 1 endeavour to 
merit, in some degree, this distinguished mark of 
your Patronage, by employing my utmost abilities 
for the accomplishment of a design, not only 
originating from your own judgment and intu- 
ition, but, in its execution, involving the honour 
of your Royal Highness, as well as the interests 
of learning, and the hopes of the learned. 

The numerous settlements of the Greeks in 
Italy, received the name of Magna Graecia, 
because their mother country was of a size con- 
siderably less than that, in which they were 
planted : among these were nearly all the cities 
in the Province of Campania, including Naples, 
the capital of his Sicilian Majesty, and, also, 
Herculaneum, and Pompeii, which are supposed 
to boast a foundation coeval with Hercules him- 
self, three thousand and fifty years ago, or twelve 
hundred and fifty years before the Christian sera. 
This Province, more than any other part of 



119 

Magna Grsecia, was always celebrated for the 
studious and successful cultivation of the Arts 
and Sciences. The two Cities of Herculaneum 
and Pompeii ranked next to that of Naples in 
every respect, as places of considerable note; 
they had their public theatres, with every other 
attendant, of great population, splendour, opu- 
lence, and general prosperity. These, in com- 
mon with all the rest of Campania, became the 
elegant and favourite resort of the Romans, for 
the different purposes of health, luxury, repose, 
and erudition. 

In the ninth year of Nero's reign,* these 
two cities experienced a most formidable shock 
from an earthquake, which overthrew a great 



* U. C. 816. 
A. D. 63. 

Caius Memmius Regulus, 
Lucius Virginius Rufus, Consuls. 



120 

part of them. Nor had they recovered alto- 
gether from the effects of this calamity by their 
exertions, and the aid of Imperial munificence, 
when a second calamity, of a different nature, 
but equally unexpected, consigned them both at 
once to the most complete oblivion. This cala- 
mity was the great eruption of Vesuvius, which 
happened on the 24th day of August, two full 
months from the accession of the Emperor Titus 
Vespasian.* Herculaneum was buried under a 
mass of heavy volcanick matter, to the depth, 
in some places, of seventy feet ; while Pompeii 
and Stabise, being more distant from the moun- 
tain, were overwhelmed principally with a shower 
of ashes, nor in any place to any considerable 



* U. C. 832. 
A. D. 79 

Flavius Vespasianus 9* 

Titus Vespasianus 8. Consuls. 



121 

depth. But the fate of the two first was sudden 
and inevitable ; and yet it appears, that almost 
all of the inhabitants, and what is an equally 
surprising circumstance, more of the Hercula- 
neans, than the Pompeians escaped. Besides a 
few other skeletons, there have been found in 
the cellar of a villa beyond the northern gate of 
Pompeii eighteen skeletons; and thus, by the 
paucity of their number, the relation of Dio 
Cassius, who states the destruction of the 
people, while assembled at the theatre, is proved 
to be totally erroneous. It may be proper to 
remark, that, before this eruption, the whole of 
Vesuvius was in a state of cultivation and ferti- 
lity, from the top to the bottom ; and though 
the form and soil of the mountain, in one parti- 
cular spot, seemed to denote the traces of some 
former explosion, yet no extant memorial of any 
kind had recorded it. 

Neither of these two cities was discovered 

R 



122 

again till a long period of more than sixteen 
centuries. It was at the beginning of the last 
century, that some labourers, by order of the 
Prince d'Elbeuf, proprietor of the territory, in 
sinking a well, struck their tools against a statue, 
which was on a bench in the theatre of Hercu- 
laneum. Some years afterwards, Pompeii was 
discovered with much less difficulty, as the in- 
cumbent stratum was neither so hard, nor so 
deep as that of the former city. 

The whole number of the manuscripts 
saved from Herculaneum,* is to the amount of 
eighteen hundred, if I am rightly informed by 
those, whose official situation must give them a 
competent knowledge of the subject. Your 



* Some remains of manuscripts found in Pompeii, in the Museum 
at Portici, are totally white, and without a single character. The slight, 
loose, thin stratum of ashes could not preserve them from the effects of 
rain, and other moisture. 



123 

Royal Highness, by facilitating the develope- 
ment of those volumes, will, probably, be the 
means of further excavation, and of rescuing 
from their interment an infinite quantity of 
others. Nearly fifty years ago, his Sicilian Ma- 
jesty ordered the developement, the transcrip- 
tion, and the publication of the volumes, which 
had then been saved, to be undertaken. This 
operation was accordingly begun, and has never 
been discontinued till the late invasion of the 
French. But its mode, however excellent, was 
extremely slow; it has been performed by a 
single person in general, and never by more than 
two or three persons, under the direction of the 
Royal Herculaneum Academy, whose President 
is always the Secretary of State for the Depart- 
ment of the " Case Reali." 

The frames are square, and of wood, sup- 
ported by four legs. The sides are close ; but a 
hole in the bottom admits some ribands, to 

r2 



124 

which a proportionable weight is appended for 
securing each respective manuscript steadily in 
the circles of brass fixed upon the heads of two 
steel upright pieces in the inside of the bottom, 
at a distance from each other, suitable to the 
several lengths of the different manuscripts ; in 
these, indeed, some little variation of lengths is 
found. Upon the top of the frames, some screws 
are placed, and turn the silken threads, which 
descend to the gold-beater's skin upon the sur- 
face of the manuscripts : to this skin they are 
fastened with gum and water; but the skin, 
which thus lines the surface, is cut into many 
small pieces; and, before fastening these pieces, 
the surface is narrowly examined by the unfolder, 
with the assistance of a magnifying-glass, in 
order not to place any of those pieces over the 
numberless chasms, or holes, produced in the 
surface by the volcanick materials, by lapse of 
time, or other accidental, or incidental, circum- 



125 

stance. The pieces are attached with glue and 
water, and, therefore, if, through neglect, or 
from undiscernible minuteness, they should be 
laid on any such chasm, or hole, they would 
forcibly raise all the portion of a manuscript, to 
the whole depth of the chasm, or hole, and 
injure, or destroy the manuscript itself. From 
the operation of thus cautiously proceeding to 
open the manuscript, the unfolder advances to 
separate such destined portion of the surface at 
the edge itself, with an instrument like an awl, 
and the said portion, thus partially separated at 
the edge only, is then totally disclosed, and 
raised to view, by turning the screws above, and 
drawing the silken threads. 

This process, so suited to the double pur- 
pose of unfolding the substance, and, at the 
same time, of holding together its frail and 
crumbling texture, was invented by a Monk, 
called Piaggi, procured by Charles III. King of 



126 

Naples, from the Pope, to whom he was sub- 
librarian. He was a man of great mechanical 
genius, but of no erudition, and, therefore, each 
unfolded portion was delivered by him to the 
celebrated Mazzochi, the Bentley of Naples, and 
author of that inestimable work, the Treatise 
upon the Heraclean Tables. The first manu- 
script, which was unfolded, was the Treatise 
upon Musick, prepared by Mazzochi for publi- 
cation, as we now see it. Not more than seven- 
teen others were unfolded in a space of more 
than forty years. That upon Musick, and no 
other, was ever published. This is in the Li- 
brary of his Majesty, where, through the oblig- 
ing politeness of Mr. Barnard, the King's Libra- 
rian, I have had the advantage of perusing it. 
Indeed, I hope your Royal Highness will not 
disapprove my acknowledging, in this place, the 
very warm and respectful interest, which both 
this gentleman, and the Right Honourable the 



127 

President of the Royal Society,* have expressed 
for the furtherance of your Royal Highnesses 
great and good design. Meanwhile, by this 
Specimen of Philodemus, I am convinced, that 
if the frames should be multiplied to the pro- 
posed extent, several pages of thirty different 
manuscripts might be disclosed, and transcribed 
within the space of one year, or, perhaps, 
sooner. 

But the very period, at which the manu- 
scripts were buried, serves to point out to your 
Royal Highness, that you may expect the reco- 
very of either the whole, or, at least, parts of 



* It was suggested by Sir Joseph Banks, that from the nature of 
the ancient atramenlum, which, perhaps, was not so much an ink as a 
paint, and from the materials of these manuscripts, there may be derived 
a chance of applying a chemical process to this developement of the 
cinders, with increased expedition and effect. The suggestion is of the 
first importance ; hereafter there may be an opportunity of ascertaining 
its utility by experiment. 



128 

the best writers in antiquity, hitherto deemed 
irrecoverable. All of these, in truth, had been 
written before that period, if we except Tacitus, 
whose inestimable works were, unfortunately, not 
composed till twenty years afterwards, during the 
reign of Trajan, 

Nor can it be imagined for a moment, that 
among eighteen hundred manuscripts, already 
discovered, and especially from the numberless 
ones, which further excavations may supply, lost 
at such a period in one of the most capital 
cities, in the richest, most frequented, and most 
learned province of Italy, an established seat of 
the Arts and Sciences, the resort of the most 
distinguished Romans, not any part of those 
illustrious authors should be discovered. 

But the Manuscript of Philodemus itself, 
makes the reverse of such an idea appear much 
more probable. To the moderns, who have 

" Untwisted all the chains, that tie 
" The hidden soul of harmony," 



129 

his Treatise on Musick cannot, indeed, be sup- 
posed to communicate much information ; yet 
the subject is scientific, and scientifically treated. 
The author himself, too, was one of the most 
eminent men, in his time, for wit, learning, and 
philosophy. But in the rest of the arts* and 
sciences, in history, in poetry, the discovery of 
any lost writer, either in whole, or in part, 
would be deemed a most valuable acquisition, 
and treasure, and form a new sera in literature. 

It is extremely fortunate, that the cha- 
racters f of these manuscripts, whether they 
should be Greek, or Latin, must be very obvi- 
ous and legible. Before the year of our Lord 



* Particularly the ancient mode of cementing in architecture, and on 
proportions in sculpture and painting, 

f One of the principal difficulties in copying these manuscripts, 
appears to consist in supplying the proper letters, or words, at the 
different chasms. 

S 



130 • 

79, and some time after it, the majuscnlce, or 
unciales littcrce, capital letters, were solely used. 
A page, therefore, in one of these manuscripts, 
would present to your Royal Highness an exact 
image of some mutilated inscription in those 
languages, on an ancient column, statue, or 
sepulchre. 

There cannot remain a doubt, even omit- 
ting the assurances from men of official situa- 
tion to that effect, that your Royal Highness's 
Superintendent will receive every possible as- 
sistance from the Royal Herculaneum Academy, 
and the Neapolitan Government ; and in that 
case it seems improbable, that the object of this 
mission can be altogether fruitless. 

With such a termination of it, however, 
your Royal Highness, by having proposed to 
concur with his Sicilian Majesty in the quicker, 
and more effectual developement, transcription, 
and publication, of these manuscripts, will reap 



131 

the satisfaction of having made a most princely 
attempt in behalf of knowledge and literature, 
upon an occasion where their interests might be 
affected most materially, and in a manner, of 
which no annals have afforded, or can hereafter 
afford, an example. Even the manuscript of 
Thecla, the world will recollect, notwithstanding 
some disputes about the exact date of its anti- 
quity, has been deemed invaluable, more parti- 
cularly as corroborating the authority of all the 
sacred writings, which it embraces. The cele- 
brated Montfaucon, so long engaged in quest of 
some ancient Greek and Latin manuscripts, 

■A 

especially the latter, thought the motive alone 
of his researches, however fruitless, repaid, with 
competent gratification of conscious merit, all 
his literary toil and exertions. In the present 
instance, also, your Royal Highnesses very inter- 
position will be your glory : your want of suc- 



s 2 



132 

cess will only make the learned world feel with 
gratitude, what you would have done. 

This imperfect Narrative seemed the only 
method in my power, of submitting to your 
Royal Highness a sketch of those facts, which 
have given rise to the present Mission ; and I 
shall esteem myself highly honoured, if your 
Royal Highness would graciously condescend to 
accept it. 

Permit me to subscribe myself, 

SIR, 

Your Royal Highnesses most dutiful, 

Obliged, and devoted Servant, 

JOHN HAYTER. 

March 20tk, 1800. 




XrrU Acnlu*. Xif*iu>. 



Lcndeth I'uhlislml AprU zz' i.'tu In titrtmr.l Vhittips, Wf / J«r Bruty*- Street 



DESCRIPTION 



OF THE 



PAPYRUS PLANT. 



The respective Drawings of the Papyrus, in- 
serted in this Appendix, are of that Plant, as it 
grows in Sicily, near Syracuse. What I have 
said in page 32 of the Second Letter, seems to 
make the insertion of these drawings almost 
necessary. 

The late ingenious Chevalier Landolini, 
whom I have mentioned in a note of the same 
page, has from the Sicilian Papyrus manufac- 
tured a substance, of which I have seen a written 



134 

specimen in the Royal Museum at Portiei. By 
repeated experiments upon other specimens I 
have found, that modern paper itself is not 
much better adapted to the purpose of writing, 
than this substance. Hence the Chevalier, in 
an Italian manuscript Essay, now at Oxford, 
concludes, from arguments of much weight at 
least, should they not appear convincing to 
others, as well as to myself, that this Sicilian 
Papyrus is the same* with that of iEgypt, as 
described by Theophrastus, and Pliny.-J* The 
same plant grows in the Flora at Palermo, where 
it was, I think, much neglected. 



* A contrary position is fairly stated by the learned Author of the 
articles " Paper," and " Papyrus," in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. To 
that work I must refer, except for the original, and translation of Theo- 
phrastus, De Plantis, lib. 4, which I have inserted in this place. 

f To these you may add Cassiodorus. 



135 

In Theophrastus, Lib. 4, De Plantis, the 
Papyrus is described as one of the three iEgyp- 
tian plants, which, (he says) amongst an infinite 
number of others of that kind, in the same 
country, are the sweetest, and the most nutri- 
tive, QvsTai is o 7ra7rvpog oin sv (ZdSsi tov viaTog ctAA' ogov 
sv iio nr^sgiv sviayov is koli sXaTTovi. X\.dyog psv ovv 
T^pifyg napitog dvipog svpdgTov. Mrittog is vrsp ism 7cf\ysig" 
<pvsTai is vnsp Tr\g yqg dvTY\g 7rXayiag pi£ag sig tov kyiXov 
nabisiga XsKToig koli ffvitvag, dvoo is rovg %a%vpovg ttaKovpsvovg 

TpiydoVOVC fJLSysSoC <j0£ TSTpClTtfi^Sig K0fJLY]V s^ovTag dyjpsiav KOLl 
dgSsvri, Kap%ov is oKoog ovisva, TovTovg i* dvaiiioogi koltoL 
%oXXa fAspri. XpwvTai is roug [jlsv 'pi^aig dvTi %vXoov ov fjiovov 
Tw Kaisiv aXKa mi Tot gnsvY\ otAAot itoisiv s% dvTov 7rctPToioL7Toi, 
UoKv yap sysi to %vAov Kai KaXov. dvTog is 'o itditvpog npog 
kKsUtol ^pYisifJiog' koli yip TrAoFot g£ dvTov, Kai 'sk Tr\g (Zifihov 
'igTia ts nXsKovgi koli fidSovc Kai sg6r\Tag Tivag koli gTpoofjivdg 

KOLl gyOlVlOL TS KOLl STSpOL TthSltt. K(Zl SfitpOLVSgTOLTOL JS) To'ig 
s'%tt TOt (iifiXlK MdhigTOL is KOLl TCKsigTYl fioYiQetOL TlpOQ TYiV 

Tpo<pr\v 'an 'avTov yivsTai, MaguvTaiy&p v anavTsg 'oi sv tJJ 



136 

2£G0/?a ziXVpOV KOLl 'cdfJLOV KOLl S<p8oV KOLl 'oXTOV. KoLl TOP fJLSV 

yvrCov kcltoMivovviv. To <F ^oLg^oL 'etcfZoiXXovov. 'O fJLSV 

OVV XCLKVpOQ TQIOVTOC 76 KOLl TOIOLVTOLC 7t0LpS^(6T0Ll TOLC ^BlOlC. 

U The Papyrus grows not to a whole, but 
about two cubits, and sometime less, depth of 
water. Moreover the thickness of its root is 
equal to the wrist of a stout man, and its height 
more than ten cubits. It grows, however, above 
the ground itself, while it shoots, below, oblique, 
slender, and numerously-crowded fibres, into the 
mud, and, above, the papyrus's, as they are called, 
of a triangular form, not less in measure than 
four cubits, or thereabout, with an unserviceable, 
feeble leaf, and totally without fruit of any kind, 
and it produces these (papyrus's) in many parts. 
But, instead of wood, they use not only the 
fibres for fuel, but also make from (the whole 
plant) itself utensils of every species, quite dif- 
ferent, (from fuel) because the plant has woody 
materials in great quantity, and of good ap- 



137 

pearance. In truth, the Papyrus itself* is 
serviceable for very many things, as they form, 
out of it vessels for navigation; besides that, 
from its rind they form not only sails, but mats, 
and certain dresses, and coverings, and even 
ropes, and many other things, and books, f which 
are, indeed, the most distinguished by the 
attention of foreigners. But, what is the greatest 
circumstance of all, it yields even a considerable 
supply for nutriment, for every one in the coun- 
try chews the Papyrus, as well in a raw, as in a 
boiled, and roasted state ; and they swallow, 
indeed, the juice, but eject the cud. The 
Papyrus, in a word, is of such a nature, and from 
itself supplies useful objects of such a quality. 



* In its whole bulk, and stock, as distinguished from the roots, and 

branches. 

f The force of the original j3/|3A*a, books, and |3fj3Xc>£, rind, or 

bark, must be lost in a translation. 

T 



I'l.il /'/.M 




l.rnJs-i.J:d-!tsh..l April : " Vi. /l /. . . . 



I'l III 




Srr\e traftftMBuL 



"Condon Published SprU ssfuSn by TtichariUPhillips A'!' 1 ..Yen ftruioe Street, 




S«lr SruV ^>™<l 



L.'tuiott PtiMu'toi Jfvil M* I .' i*jiihi r s .1 v 7JSfm Bridstt Street 



PI \ r /-'J. 




Mr fc^m»»l 



I ,>ndi'ii J'ubluhrtl Jprii :■:•■' ' .Xii /■ ... , 



A BRIEF REMARK 



UPON THE 



HERCULANENSIA. 



As the Manuscript Ilsfi tm ®sm, published in 
the Herculanensia, dedicated to his Royal High- 
ness the Prince, was decyphered, and its lacunce 
filled up by me, it may be proper, that I just 
advert to it in this Appendix of my Letter, 
addressed to his Royal Highness. 

It has given me some pain, not unmingled 
with surprise, to observe the criticisms which 
have been made on this Manuscript in some of 
the Reviews. The Authors of the Herculanensia 
were absent, as they themselves have assured 
me, from London, when the greatest part of that 

t 2 



140 

book was re-printed from a copy already printed 
at Palermo, in which the errors of the press 
were innumerable. Many of those errors have, 
unfortunately, been retained in the edition 
printed at London, where there was no person 
but the printer himself to correct the press. I 
then saw, with grief, much critical hostility di- 
rected against manifest errors of the press, and 
I lamented to see so much anger, and so much 
erudition, expended on blunders, that every 
scholar could amend, and every school-boy could 
detect. I flattered myself that these instances 
of false orthography in Greek would have been 
attributed to the errors of the press, and not to 
the author of the Supplements. In one page 
of the Herculanensia, Tarquinius Prise us is called 
the sun of a Corinthian. Now, really, 1 should 
have as soon have thought of hearing a critic 
calling out to Mr. Walpole, a man of profound 
learning, that he had made a great mistake in 



141 

writing sun for so?i 9 as of being myself attacked 
with the remarks, that I had written vikJol for 
nil*, &c. &c. There may be, and there probably 
are, wrong conjectures in my Supplements ; but 
I ought not to repent of having discharged the 
duties, which his Royal Highness has so graci- 
ously imposed upon me, in consequence of any 
objections that may have been raised against 
mere errors of the press. 



FINIS. 



G. Sidney, Printer, 
Northumberland Street, Strand, London. 







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LIBRARY OF 



CONGRESS 



°°3 221 958 



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